Comics Collide
by PyroQueenOfFire
Summary: Batman, Wolverine, Spiderman and Superman have found the women that they want to marry--but can they deal with all of the drama that comes with them? This is what happens when comics collide....
1. Getting to Know Each Other

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**My sister and I have been compiling this for like a year now.**

**We're HUGE comic book fanatics.**

**I PROMISE you that it picks up in the next couple chapters.**

**First there are introductions to get out of the way.**

**There is language and sensuality.**

**Enjoy!!**

****

Rose Meckenzie filed her papers as fast as she could so she could go over Bruce's schedule soon. Working for Bruce Wayne was both a pleasure and a curse, for Rose had very little time to herself, and her many protests about how dirty Gotham had become when it came to crime rate. She was rather disheartened about that, but she wasn't going to let it get her down.

"Ms. Meckenzie, Bruce would like to see you in his office." A man told her.

Rose looked up from her desk and nodded, stopping her work immediately, hurrying into Bruce's office with his schedule for the day, and smiled at him as he looked up from his coffee and smiled at her.

"Good morning, Rose." Bruce said.

"Morning, Bruce. You wanted to see me?" Rose asked.

Bruce nodded. "I was wondering if you pushed the press conference to four and if I had that two hours off today from one to three."

Rose nodded. "It's been taken care of. I'm still trying to get you next Wednesday off so you can tend to your personal affairs."

Bruce beamed. "I don't think I could ask for a more wonderful partner."

Rose blushed. "Don't mention it. Have you decided who you're taking to the unveiling of the newest product from electronics?"

Bruce shook his head. "That's still up in the air."

Rose nodded. "Of course. Would you like more coffee, Bruce?"

Bruce smiled. "That's all right, Rose, I can get some more coffee by myself."

"No, Bruce, it's fine. I can manage it." Rose told him, reaching for his coffee mug, her hand brushing across his, causing another blush to rise in her cheeks.

****

Alexis Meckenzie sighed as she toughed through her article. It wasn't the most amazing thing that she had written, but then again, there wasn't as much evidence as she had wished. She knew her older sister was probably still at the office, so there was no way to just call her up and read it to her to get feedback. So, skimming through it, she edited a bit more.

"_A man with an "iron fist" has been continually winning in fights in bars in Canada a few months ago. Upon further investigation, the man was kicked out because people claimed he was a mutant. He goes by the name "Wolverine", and is believed to be highly dangerous. Though this journalist personally feels that mutants are not a danger to the human race, do not approach this man because he is on the run—let the specialized forces deal with him_." Alexis read out loud.

She knew it was missing something, but she didn't know what. Personally, she found this Wolverine to be rather intriguing, but she knew that it was her job as the journalist to alert the public of possible dangers. Wolverine hadn't gone around killing anyone, and so he couldn't be _that_ dangerous.

"Is that sudden news article of yours ready to go to print?" A woman asked, poking her head into Alexis' office.

Alexis looked up. "Give me just one more minute."

The woman nodded. "All right, but I can only spare five more minutes, and then the layout has to be sent to the publisher, Alex."

Alexis nodded, looking back at her article and crossing out words and adding some new text, reading it out loud to herself again.

"_A new mutant was discovered a few months ago, that goes by the name of Wolverine. Wolverine was last seen in Alberta, Canada, cage fighting in local bars to earn money, and this information was just released to us. He could be anywhere, but do not panic. This journalist personally feels that we have nothing to fear from the mutant population as a whole, the specialized forces know how to do their job and protect the people of this city. Nevertheless, do not approach this man_." Alexis read.

She smiled and nodded, putting her pen down and then typing the article up, hurrying to her editor's office and putting the paper on her desk.

"I think it's pretty good." Alexis said. "Though I'm a little biased since I wrote it."

"Thank you, Alex." The woman replied, smiling. "It'll go into the layout that's ready to be released first thing tomorrow morning."

****

Eva Dulsche was busy snapping pictures of whatever caught her eyes. She smiled as she ran across a nice little grove of brushes in the park, which was definitely rare in Gotham city. Eva had thought about calling her cousins Rose and Alexis, but wasn't quite sure what she would tell them.

Snapping photos was the only thing getting her mind off of the fact that her mother was in the hospital. Her mother had been slowly deteriorating, but the doctors still had hope for a recovery. Eva's older sister, April, was coming back from school soon to start her career as a Reporter in Gotham, but was currently away from home.

"What brings you out here to take pictures?" A man's voice asked.

Eva smiled a little, turning to see her good friend Peter Parker. Peter was on vacation, and had come to visit Eva since she had left New York from visiting her Aunt and Uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Meckenzie.

"I was capturing what little natural beauty there is left out here." Eva replied.

Peter chuckled. "So Rose is making less progress than she had hoped?"

Eva nodded. "She's been spending more time than she'd like at Wayne Enterprises lately."

"You caught those leaves yet?" Peter asked.

He stepped closer to her, pointing to a blooming rosebud, and Eva blushed and smiled.

"No, I hadn't noticed." She admitted, snapping a quick picture. "So you have an eye for photography that doesn't include Spiderman?"

Peter laughed. "Taking pictures of Spiderman gets me the money I need to pay for rent and everything, but I like the other pictures—the ones that are more for my own personal viewing pleasure."

Eva nodded. "Good. It's good you take the pleasures out of the simple things in life."

Peter nodded too, and then his face changed.

"How's your mother?" He asked.

Eva's smile faded. "Not as well as I would wish."

****

April Dulsche sighed as she finished her final exam. It was strange that she was finally finishing her work when no one else in her close family was finishing school. Rose had graduated already being 24, and Alexis had graduated early even though she was 22. This was April's last year at the university, and so she was 22 like Alexis. However, her younger sister, Eva was only 19, and had never actually finished school. She went for a while, but since she already had a good job doing what she loved, she didn't feel the need to finish her university education.

"Pencils down." The Professor said, and April smiled as she looked over her work.

After turning in her final, she went to her dorm room and she finished packing up her things before she made a pit stop at the dry cleaners, grabbing the rest of her things. She got onto a train, knowing that it was going to take her a little while to get to Gotham. Looking down at her news-clippings, she smiled a bit at all of the Superman articles, and ran her fingers along his picture.

"What _will_ you do when I'm gone?" She whispered.

For the rest of the ride, she listened to her music silently, and then she looked up as they entered Gotham, and got on the monorail, getting off a couple blocks away from her home. She shifted her heavy backpack, and dragging her two large suitcases, she got to the house she shared with Eva, Rose and Alexis. She sighed and opened the door, Eva turning and coming over to her, hugging her fiercely.

"Hey sis!" Eva cried.

"Hey!" April replied, grinning.

"The rest of the things you sent earlier are upstairs in your room. You'll have to unpack them yourself." Eva told her sister.

"You're not going to help me?" April asked.

Eva shook her head. "Peter's in the kitchen and I promised I'd make him a sandwich."

"Welcome back, April!" Peter called from the kitchen.

April nodded. "All right. I assume that Alex and Rose aren't back from work yet?"

Eva nodded again. "You assume correctly. Rose called to say she was going to be really late tonight and not to wait for her, and Alex is going to be home in an hour."

April smiled. "Okay. Hi, Peter."

With that, she went up the stairs and began to unpack, happy to be in Gotham, and also sad she was so far from Metropolis.


	2. Too Much Work and Not Enough Play

Rose sighed and let her head rest on the desk as Bruce finished up figuring out what he did and didn't have time to do the next couple days.

"I'm so sorry, Rose. You should really go home." Bruce said.

Rose sighed. "No. Not until the schedule is the way that you want it."

Bruce smiled. "Rose, we can do this in the morning."

Rose shook her head. "It's okay."

She sat up straight and took the planner from him, double-checking it and then transferring it to her laptop and smiling up at Bruce.

"So tomorrow I'm coming in late, and I don't expect you to be here until around noon." Bruce told her.

"You have anything you need done?" Rose asked.

Bruce shook his head. "You've done enough today, Rose. Go on home and go to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Rose nodded and smiled. "Of course."

She gathered up her things and went to the door, turning to Bruce for a moment.

"Sweet dreams, Bruce." She said.

"Sweet dreams, Rose." Bruce replied.

Rose smiled and then went to her car and drove home, slumping inside, going to the couch because it was near, and sitting down next to Peter who was waiting for Eva to come back with a movie for them to watch for a bit because he was going out on an afternoon flight the next day.

"Night, Peter." Rose said, leaning her head on his shoulder and breathing a little heavier.

"Rose?" Peter asked, pushing on her head a little. "Rose?"

He knew she was pretty out, but he really wanted her off of his shoulder. When Eva came in, her jaw dropped, and then she looked a little downhearted until Peter let out a rather disgusted noise as Rose drooled on him.

"Ah! Get her off of me, Eva!" Peter said.

Eva went over to Rose and shook her shoulders rather hard.

"Rose? Rose!" Eva said.

Rose sat up suddenly, really very tired.

"Go to bed." Eva said.

"Okay." Rose said, nodding sleepily, leaning over on the arm of the couch and conking out.

"Where's April when you need her?" Eva asked.

"Right here." April said, smacking Rose hard on the side with a rolled up newspaper.

"Fuck!" Rose cried, getting up. "I'm going to bed! God, April!"

With that, she stumbled up the stairs, lying down on the carpet at the top, sprawling out and falling asleep, only to be woken up again by April smacking her hard in the butt with the newspaper. After swearing about her butt hurting, Rose stumbled into her room and flopped down on her bed.

****

Alexis came home around two o'clock in the morning instead of when she had been planning on coming home. Eva looked up from the doorway and smiled.

"Welcome home, Alex." She said.

Alexis smiled. "Hey, Eva."

"You know you were supposed to be home at nine and it's…two o'clock in the morning." Eva replied, looking up at the clock.

"Really?" Alexis asked. "Where _does_ the time go?"

"What were you doing all night?" Eva asked.

"I was at a club with some colleagues. Had lots of margaritas." Alexis smiled.

"Oh…well I need you to make up the guest room for Peter." Eva told her, getting to the point.

"Why me?" Alexis asked.

"Um…because I made him a sandwich?" Eva asked, smiling her cunning smile.

"How long did it take you to make said sandwich?" Alexis asked.

"For the purpose of this conversation: as long as you were gone." Eva said.

"Bull." Alexis said playfully. "But no…I've had too many margaritas to make up the guest room."

Eva smiled. "But you can hold your liquor."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to do it. And besides…I lost count after four, so I don't know how many I really had. I'm…tipsy." Alexis shrugged.

"Please, Alex? Please? Alex, please?" Eva tried.

"No. I'm going to bed." Alexis told her.

Eva sighed. "Fine. I'll do it."

Alexis smiled and nodded, and then she went up the stairs to go to her room, going past Rose's and frowning a little, looking at the open door. She turned and looked over the banister at Eva as Eva began to climb the stairs to make up the guest room for Peter.

"Why is Rose lying on the floor?" Alexis asked.

Eva sighed. "Rose has had a trying day."

Alexis nodded. "Ah."

Alexis went to her room and opened up her closet, grabbing some nightclothes and throwing them on her bed for the time being. She got ready for bed by fixing her hair and brushing her teeth, washing her face, and then doing nature's business. Then she took off her clothes and put them in her hamper, changing into her nightclothes and then turning off the light, climbing into bed and snuggling into her soft covers.

"Tomorrow will be a nice eventful day." Alexis whispered into her pillow.

Smiling more to herself, Alexis began to drift off a bit.

****

Eva sighed as she fixed up the guest room, and then trudged down the stairs and smiled at Peter sleeping on the couch. She brushed some hair out of his face, and then knelt on the floor, looking at him and whispering his name.

"Peter…wake up, Peter." Eva whispered.

Peter smiled a bit. "Don't want to."

Eva giggled. "Get up, Peter."

Peter sighed and opened his eyes smiling at Eva who blushed and pulled away a little bit.

"I fixed up the guest room." Eva said.

Peter nodded. "You really didn't have to go through all that trouble, I'm really fine on the couch."

"Nonsense, Peter. You're a guest, so you deserve to be in the guest room with a bed." Eva told him.

Peter smiled and sat up. "Thank you, Eva."

Eva took his hand as he stood up, and the two of them went up to the guest room and he smiled a bit as he sat on the bed.

"The bathroom is right there, and if you need to wash some clothes, the laundry room is down in the bottom part of the house. It's different than the old house." Eva said.

Peter nodded. "Nice to know."

"So I think that I'll go ahead and go to bed now." Eva told him.

"Wait…" Peter said as Eva was leaving the room.

Eva turned to him. "Yes?"

"Tomorrow, will you see me off on the plane?" Peter asked.

Eva smiled. "Of course, Peter. You know, next time you come you should properly call and let me know so I can pick you up from the airport."

Peter smiled too. "I promise that next time I come I'll give you a heads up."

"And maybe you can bring Mary Jane sometime." Eva shrugged, knowing she ruined the moment, but also knowing that Peter was in love with Mary Jane and Eva just wanted him to be happy.

"Mary Jane wouldn't like it here like I do." Peter said quickly.

It took some effort not to smile at the blatant attempt to keep Mary Jane away, and then Eva nodded.

"Well I would be lying if I said the more the merrier." Eva said.

"We do well by ourselves." Peter agreed, smiling at her.

Eva nodded. "Night, Peter."

"Night, Eva." Peter told her, as she left his room.

She went down the hall to her room and got ready for bed, falling asleep contentedly knowing that Peter liked the alone time with her.

****

Over the next couple days, April added to her newspaper collection, Rose had all-nighters at the office, Alexis went to business get-togethers at clubs, and Eva did her photography.

"This is an interesting day." April said as she came home.

"As interesting as waking up with drool all over your face after you fell out of your bed?" Rose asked.

April smiled. "More interesting than that, Rose. Clark Kent is going to this unveiling of the new Wayne Enterprises invention, and I'm reporting there."

Rose sent her a glare and then got up and went up to her room in a huff as Alexis sighed.

"What's wrong with her?" April asked.

Alexis sighed again. "Bruce isn't taking her to the gala."

"Oh. Damn." April said. "Now I feel a little bad that I was bragging."

"So this Clark Kent…who is he?" Alexis asked.

April smiled. "Oh…he's just a journalist for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, and apparently one of Bruce's good friends."

Alexis smirked. "And you like him."

"I do not! I just…admire his work." April protested.

Alexis snorted, waving her hands to signal that she believed her, even though she didn't. April didn't care, but instead went up to her room and smiled as she went through her closet. However, she wasn't amused that she couldn't find much of anything. She heard the door open downstairs, and hurried to the banister, beaming as she saw a familiar old man that was a very dear friend of the family and had been visiting his sick brother for the last few months, but was back to be their butler again.

"WILLOUGHBY!" Rose cried, running down the stairs.

April followed after her, all of the girls rushing to their favorite old man, hugging him and kissing his cheek as he smiled.

"It's good to see all of you." Willoughby replied. "It's so good to be back."

"You're just in time too." April told him as they all backed off a bit.

Willoughby smiled. "Having a wardrobe crisis I suspect?"

April beamed. "You always know, Willoughby."

Willoughby chuckled. "Let us venture into the attic."

With that, April followed Willoughby to the old attic, the other girls setting to making him a welcome home meal and unpack his things. Willoughby set to opening some boxes in the far corner, pulling out an old dress that was simple and yet flattering—the perfect little black dress.

"Willoughby, what would we do without you?" April asked.

"Surely never find a decent formal to wear." Willoughby joked.

April hugged him one last time, and then she went to her room and began to throw an outfit together, thoroughly excited to finally be starting her career as a field reporter.


	3. Deathly Fun

Rose grabbed a gallon of Dreyer's Cookie Dough Ice Cream out of the freezer and then she snuck it up to her room and opened her closet, pushing up the part of the closet that actually held her clothes and came down from the ceiling, revealing a shrine. There was a small table with candles and rose petals on it, and a black beanbag chair in front of it. On the back wall and the sides were collages of Batman pictures, and one large framed picture of him above the table that read, "Our love will forever burn."

Rose lit the candles, finding a picture of Bruce she had forgotten to replace since Bruce had asked that woman to the gala instead of her, and ripped it in half, tossing it in the garbage before she went into her large closet and turned on the radio to power pop music, and closed the doors behind her, eating her ice cream and sitting on the beanbag chair moving to the music.

She stayed like that until she had eaten half of the ice cream, and then as she was about to grab one more spoonful, her closet doors were pulled open and she looked up both startled and terrified.

"What the fuck?" April asked. "Where the—how the—you need help, Rose."

Rose didn't know what to say as April's eyes rolled over the pictures of Batman on the walls of her closet and then the glob of ice cream on her spoon fell on the floor and Rose looked at it and sighed.

"Fuck, I just lost some ice cream, thanks April." She said, turning down her music.

"Sorry. I just…I came to say that I'm sorry Bruce is going to the gala without you. You've done so much for him, and the least he could do to pay you back is to take you to this science unveiling. I mean you love the stuff that Electronics comes up with." April explained.

Rose sighed and then shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"You know, that ice cream is going to make you fat." April said.

Rose cracked a smile and faked a hurt look all at once.

"I'm already plumper than that stupid supermodel he took." Rose admitted.

April sighed. "You're in great physical shape, Rose. Look, I need to get going, but I wanted to just say 'bye' and to…well see where the music was coming from."

Rose smiled. "You look great, April. Have fun. Really."

"I will. Night, Rose." April said.

She closed the doors to the closet, and so Rose turned the music back up and then she ate a little more ice cream and sang along to the music before the doors were once again ripped open, but this time by Alexis.

"Rose…turn the music down." Alexis said. "Stop wallowing in self pity."

Rose sighed, and put the spoon in the carton of ice cream.

"He took that fat supermodel." Rose told her.

Alexis laughed. "That's quite the oxymoron."

Rose scrunched up her nose. "Is not."

Alexis smiled. "Look, I'm off, but you really need to stop flipping out over nothing."

Rose nodded. "Fine. Fine. Where's Eva?"

"At the hospital." Alexis replied.

****

Alexis parked her car and then went into the office, sitting down at her desk and turning on her computer.

"This is the new stuff we just got in." Her editor told her.

Alexis nodded. "All right. I'll get right on it."

"We've had a couple calls today about people thinking they've sighted Wolverine." Her editor said.

Alexis smiled. "I love when people call about my work."

Her editor smiled too, and then left her to her own devices. As Alexis looked through the news she had received, she began to put an article together, sighing a bit as she read it over.

"_There was an attack on the White House today by a mutant being deemed as "Nightcrawler". Nightcrawler is able to teleport at amazing speeds, and he left a knife with the President with the message, "Mutant Freedom Now". The stand you have with mutants is your own affair, really, but it may be beneficial to think about where the mutants are coming from. We are discriminating against them out of fear and judging them harshly. Nevertheless, that doesn't excuse the attack on the White House. Watch yourselves, Gotham._" She read out loud.

"I think that sounds good, Alex." Her editor told her.

"Thanks, Jane." Alexis blushed.

"You know, one of these days we're going to have to get you an interview with a mutant." Jane said.

Alexis's eyes lit up. "That would be fabulous!"

Jane smiled. "It would definitely be good publicity too."

"Well let's see what we can do about that." Alexis told her. "I would love to try out these skills actually writing a profile about a mutant."

Jane nodded. "How's your aunt, Alexis?"

Alexis's smile faded. "Aunt Denise is still in the hospital. The doctor's are doing all they can, but she's just deteriorating."

Jane nodded. "You know, if you want the day off, you can take it."

Alexis shook her head. "That's okay. I can do what I came here to do—write articles on mutant sightings."

"You may want to take a look at this then." Jane said.

Alexis took a folder from her that had more information about a secret mutant formula they were trying to develop, but there was nowhere near enough information on it for her to actually write something on it.

"I'll stay on this, though." Alexis told her. "I promise. This could be big."

****

Eva sat flipping through a magazine in the hospital, watching over her mother as she slept. She had thought about wandering about snapping pictures, but then she figured that people would find her to be insensitive because she found beauty in the pain of inevitability. Looking up as a nurse came in, Eva smiled a weak smile.

"She's stable." The nurse told her.

Eva nodded. "Yes, but still not well."

The nurse gave her a smile. "Doctor Smith is close."

Eva nodded. "I know."

The nurse left and Eva looked at her mother again, setting the magazine down and then scooting her chair closer to the bed and taking her mother's hand, kissing her forehead as she slept.

"I'm sorry it's just me again, Mom." Eva told her. "April had work today, and so did Rose and Alex. They came a couple days ago though. April got really high marks in school, and Rose is on top of the business. Alex's articles are causing a bit of controversy, but she's the most popular writer in Gotham."

Smiling, Eva kissed her mother's hand and then she grabbed her camera and she went wandering around, occasionally snapping pictures of the sleeping sick, or of the trauma patients whizzing by, or of the doctors writing up their reports.

"Hello." A man said as she snapped a picture of a nurse helping an old man.

Eva whirled around. "Hi."

The man was very attractive, but Eva didn't think about that. She missed Peter too much to think about cute guys.

"You find pleasure in snapping pictures of the sick and dying?" He asked.

Eva blushed. "I just think that's there's beauty in everything."

"Spoken like a true artist." The man said.

"I'm Eva." Eva said, holding out her hand.

The man smiled and took her hand, shaking it too, and she found that he had a very strong grip.

"Logan." He replied.

"Why are you here?" Eva asked.

"One of my friends is here." Logan said.

Eva nodded. "I'm sorry. You must find me completely insensitive just snapping pictures like this."

Logan shook his head. "Not at all."

"I'm afraid that I'm kind of weird when it comes to the rest of my family." Eva admitted.

Logan smiled. "I bet you're not."

Eva nodded. "But I am. You see, my eldest cousin, Rose, works for Bruce Wayne while my older sister, April, is a field reporter. Then my other cousin, Rose's younger sister, Alex, writes for the local magazine about mutants."

"Your cousin is Alexis Meckenzie?" Logan asked. "I was wondering if I'd ever meet the woman who wrote the article about Wolverine."

It was then that Eva noticed the dog tags around Logan's neck, and she read the words "Wolverine". Before she could say anything though, she saw doctors running through the hospital towards her mother's room, so she took off, stopping as the doctor announced the time of death, and then Eva slumped down on the floor and broke down.

****

April arrived at the gala, and she smiled up at the big doors, walking in with her microphone followed by her cameraman, Arthur. Arthur was following rather closely to her, both of them announcing their presence at the door and showing their press badges, and then going in through the doors.

The gathering was indeed quite the turn out, but April was more interested in finding Clark Kent because she wanted to know what was happening in Metropolis—off the record of course. She looked around a bit, smiling when she found Bruce at least, and the supermodel that Rose was so upset about.

"April!" Bruce said, going over to hug her. "Are you having fun?"

April smiled and nodded. "I am indeed."

"This is Monica." Bruce said, introducing his lady friend.

April smiled and offered her hand. "Hello, Monica. I'm April. How are you liking the get together?"

Monica smiled. "Well I'm not into electronics much, but Wayne Enterprises always comes out with great stuff."

April nodded. "My cousin, Rose, wanted to see what kinds of calibrations the new device would use. She absolutely loves the electronics part of Wayne Enterprises."

"I was really sorry to hear that she was sick and couldn't make it." Bruce said.

April motioned for Arthur to turn off the camera, but he didn't.

"What?" April asked. "I was under the impression that this was an invitation only gathering—as in only selected members were here."

Bruce nodded. "Well yes, but Rose was invited. She's my personal assistant, and an important part of my company."

"That little prune." April breathed.

"What was that?" Bruce asked.

April smiled. "Oh, nothing. I was just hoping Rose had enough Sprite and Saltines."

Bruce nodded. "I hope so. That girl gets a lot done around here. It's sad she isn't here to partake in something she enjoys."

"Real sad." April muttered.

"Bruce!" Came the voice of an unfamiliar man.

"Clark!" Bruce replied, hugging his friend.

"I love the turn out! And the food is excellent as always. I have to admit that I came thinking the paper was ridiculous, but from what I hear, this invention of yours is revolutionary." Clark said.

Bruce smiled. "Clark, I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is April Dulsche. She's Rose's cousin."

"Glad to make your acquaintance." Clark said, shaking April's hand. "Bruce talks about Rose's accomplishments a lot."

April smiled. "Yeah, that girl is an overachiever. So what do you think of the new invention?"

Clark shrugged. "I think it's another fantastic Wayne Enterprises device."

April nodded. "It sounds like it."

"What do you think, Monica?" Clark asked.

Monica shrugged. "I think it's nice and scientific."

April held back a snort, and then the unveiling proceeded, and as April finished up getting to know Clark and went to her car, she realized there was a message from Eva, so she listened to her voice mail.

"April, this is Eva…it's about Mom. Get home soon, okay?" Came the choked voice of her sister.

Hurrying home, she went inside to see her sister crying into Rose who was holding her close, and Alexis who was passing around the Kleenex and they looked up as April's face suddenly became very sad. She knew her mother was dead.


	4. Eye Openers Come in All Sizes

It was a few days later, and Rose dabbed her eyes with a black handkerchief as she, Alexis, April and Eva stood around a grave as the priest said a few words. Bruce grasped her hand and she leaned into him a bit for support, wishing that he could make this all better. Eva was taking it the hardest, having been there when she died, and they had all taken some time off of work to prepare and get through this gracefully.

"Goodbye, Mom." April whispered as Eva snapped some pictures.

Eva bent down and picked up a handful of dirt, being the first to drop some into the grave as the coffin was finally lowered. Then April dropped a handful, then Alexis, and then Rose, all of them watching as the few selected men began to shovel the rest of the dirt in, and Mr. and Mrs. Meckenzie then ushered the girls back home, Bruce letting Rose know she could take as much time as she needed before she came back.

"I think that I should make some dinner." Mrs. Meckenzie said.

"That's not necessary Aunt Margaret." April said.

"Nonsense, April. You go on and get yourself into some comfortable clothes, and I'll make everyone some Mac and Cheese." Mrs. Meckenzie protested.

"Allow me, Ma'am." Willoughby replied, having finished dabbing his own eyes a few minutes before.

"Mac and Cheese does sound fabulous." Eva said.

"I'll help you, Willoughby." Rose told him.

"That's quite all right, Rose, I can manage." Willoughby said.

"I insist." Rose replied.

Willoughby nodded slowly, and then Rose accompanied him into the kitchen, cooking the noodles as the phone rang.

"Hello?" Rose asked.

"Hello. This is Logan. Is Alexis there?" Logan asked.

Rose nodded. "Yeah, sure. Can you hold on please?"

"Of course." Logan said.

Rose set the phone down and called to Alexis, who took the call in her study. Then Rose turned to Willoughby, who hugged her.

"I know this must hurt, Rose, but everything will look up." Willoughby whispered.

Rose nodded into the reassuring man, and then she pulled away.

"I just can't help thinking that maybe there was more we could do." Rose said.

Willoughby kissed her forehead. "It was the Lord's will to take her, Rose."

"I know, I just…I miss her." Rose told him.

"We all do." Willoughby admitted. "But she's still with us."

Rose nodded and leaned into him. "I'm so glad you're back, Willoughby."

"I'm glad to be back with you girls." Willoughby said. "You're my family, and I missed being here for you. So who was that on the phone?"

"Just someone for Alex." Rose shrugged, helping to strain the macaroni.

****

"Hello?" Alexis answered the phone.

"Hi. This is Logan…or Wolverine." Logan said.

Alexis squealed. "What?"

Logan laughed. "Yeah. I was just calling about that article you wrote on me."

"What, about your cage fights in bars? What about it?" Alexis asked.

"Well I just think it's a little gutsy that you would write something like that without giving the subject some time to refute it." Logan replied.

Alexis laughed. "I wasn't bashing on you, Logan. I was merely reporting the facts and then saying that mutants aren't all bad. I don't have to give you time to defend yourself."

"Maybe lot legally." Logan agreed. "But you did say that they should stay away from me—you implied I was dangerous."

"And are you?" Alexis asked.

Logan paused. "Not to those I'm loyal to."

Alexis nodded. "Well maybe to set the record straight you would consider giving me a full interview. But right now I need to get back to my family because my aunt just died."

"I'm sorry to disturb you." Logan said. "I'll let you go, but I'll call your office and set up an interview time, all right?"

"All right. Thanks for the call, Logan. Bye." Alexis told him.

"Bye." Logan replied before they hung up.

Alexis took a deep breath and then she went downstairs to find that Eva and April had gotten out the old family videos.

"Did you really think this was smart?" Alexis asked as April let out a wail.

"It just seemed like the right thing to do." Eva said before she blew her nose.

"Is the Mac and Cheese done yet?" Alexis asked, changing the subject as her aunt came on screen. "Never mind…I'll go find out for myself."

Alexis went into the kitchen, and she found Rose making homemade cheese sauce with the assistance of Willoughby.

"I have an interview with Wolverine himself." Alexis said.

Rose looked up and smiled.

"Keep stirring, Rose." Willoughby persisted.

Rose looked back at the saucepan and blushed.

"Sorry, Willoughby. I think that's great, Alex. So that's what the whole call was about?" Rose asked.

Alexis nodded. "Absolutely."

"How are Eva and April?" Rose asked.

"They pulled out the home movies." Alexis replied.

****

Eva sighed as she lay in her bed looking up at the ceiling. Mr. and Mrs. Meckenzie were going to catch the first flight out the next morning, and she wasn't over the home movies. She was also surprised when there was a light tapping at her window randomly. Getting up, she went over to it and opened it, a rock flying in.

"What's the big idea?!?" She asked angrily, blushing as she saw Peter. "Peter…why don't you just knock on the front door?" Eva asked. "And what happened to calling me next time you showed up?"

"I couldn't help but surprise you. Sorry about the rock." He said.

Eva waved it off. "No biggie. I'll unlock the front door for you."

"No! That's okay! I'd like to try just climbing up the tree. I'm here to make sure you're all right—as much as I love your family, I'm not here for them." Peter said.

After a pause, Eva nodded, and Peter climbed up the tree with ease—almost with too much ease.

"Wow. You're…definitely more agile than you used to be." Eva said.

Peter smiled and rested his hand on the nape of her neck, pulling her to him in a tight embrace as she kept back a sob. As he held her, she started to cry, and he just continued to hold her and stroke her hair. It was nice to know he cared so much, and she smiled a little.

"Thank you." Eva said.

Peter kissed the top of her head. "No problem, Eva. I'm so sorry about your mother."

Eva nodded. "I know. You didn't have to say it. Can we not talk about her please?"

Peter nodded. "Of course. I'm sorry I brought it up."

Eva pulled away and rested her hands on his arms.

"Don't worry about it Peter. You really should stop being sorry." She said.

"So what would you like to talk about?" Peter asked with a smile.

"How you can get away so much." Eva told him.

Peter chuckled. "You're my best friend, Eva."

Eva nodded and let go of him. "Yeah. Best friend."

"Eva…" Peter began.

Eva held up her hand. "No it's okay. So you want a sleeping bag?"

"Eva, I didn't mean it like that." He said.

Eva went to the hall closet and got a sleeping bag, laying it out on the floor, stopping as Peter's hand touched her shoulder. She looked up, realizing their eyes were locked in a gaze, and their faces were inches away. Before she could open her mouth and ask him if he wanted one pillow or two, he kissed her. She was caught off guard, but when he pulled away, she smiled a little.

"Two pillows?" She asked.

Peter chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. Two."

****

April woke up the next morning in a terribly bad mood. She climbed out of bed and planted her feet violently on the floor. She trudged into the bathroom and fixed her hair after washing her face, and then pulled on some clothes. As she went out of her room, she walked past Eva's room, catching that the door was open, and Peter and Eva were in her bed and she sighed.

"I am not in the mood to deal with people." She muttered to herself, grabbing a pillow from the floor and hitting them hard with it. "Get up. And Peter…it's time you went home."

Peter and Eva were both startled awake, and Eva blushed as Peter looked at April and started to stutter something.

"I—you see—well April—I was just—good morning." He managed.

"Morning. Now get your butt out of my sister's bed and down to the breakfast table. You don't deserve to be fed after sneaking in, but I'm not a bitch. Now, Peter." She said as he gawked at her.

Peter hurried up and Eva gulped.

"As you can see, nothing happened. We just slept in the same bed." Eva said.

"Heh. Slept in the same bed. Funny." April replied.

"I'm just going to go and get some breakfast." Eva said, hurrying out of the room.

April followed her, sighing as she noticed that Rose was bustling around as Willoughby served breakfast, and she was ready for work. Alexis was also dressed to go, but she was more laid back at the breakfast table, and so probably didn't have to go for a while.

"Good morning, April. I made pancakes." Willoughby told her.

"Yum." April said unenthusiastically.

"You know I never asked you how the gala was, just in case Bruce asks when I get to work today." Rose said, smiling happily as she sipped her coffee.

"Yeah, about that…what is with you not going when you were invited?" April asked.

Everyone looked at her.

"You didn't go to the unveiling, Rose? That isn't like you." Peter said.

"Shut your yap, Peter." April retorted, and Peter quickly closed his mouth and then ate his pancakes in silence. "He doesn't get seconds."

Everyone looked at her funny except Eva, who blushed into her syrup.

"So…um, what do you mean?" Rose asked April, changing the subject.

"Oh, like you didn't go because you were jealous of Monica." April replied.

Rose blushed. "That wasn't it at all. I just…didn't feel up to it."

"Riiight." April said.

"I need to get to work, but I'll be home tonight for dinner. I promise." Rose said, hurrying out the front door with her thermos of coffee.

"I'm off too." Alexis said. "You need a ride to the airport, Peter?"

Peter nodded rather quickly. "Yes."

"Bye." Eva said, kissing him quickly.

"Bye." He said, smiling at her, quickly wiping the smile off his face when he looked at April.

As soon as he left, Willoughby felt the tension and left the room, and then April spoke before Eva could.

"I know we're going through a rough time at the moment, but you should have been thinking. Turning to sex? Right after mom died? She wouldn't have wanted that. That doesn't mean you can go around breaking every other rule. I'm still the older sister." April held her hand up as Eva began to protest. "No. No. I don't need to hear your excuses. I hope you learn a lesson from the actions you have chosen to take."

Then she turned around and walked out of the room, only going back in when Eva went past her up the stairs. She sat down to eat her pancakes, and then decided to go to work.


	5. Promotions and Impulsiveness

Rose went into her office and sat down in her chair. She sipped the coffee in her thermos and then she looked up as Bruce came into her office.

"How are you holding up?" Bruce asked.

Rose smiled. "I'm okay. I have caffeine. What's up?"

"I was hoping you and I could go over my schedule." He said.

Rose laughed. "Yeah. You're not just checking up on me?"

Bruce smiled. "Well of course I am, but I also really missed our little meetings to figure out my schedule."

"What would you do without me?" Rose asked playfully.

Bruce chuckled. "I'd definitely be lost."

Rose blushed a little and then quickly reminded herself that Bruce had passed right over her for Monica when he was looking for people to ask to the gala. Yes, she knew she could have gone and asked someone from the office, but she had really wanted to go with Bruce, and since he asked Monica, she had taken down all of his pictures in her closet and replaced them with Batman.

"So how was the unveiling?" Rose asked.

Bruce stopped smiling as she took his electronic planner and looked it over.

"It was different without you. Normally when you come to Electronics unveilings, we have nice talks about calibrations, and outlines, and schematics. With Monica…it was more, 'Hey, that's neat'." He said.

Rose couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Really? I hadn't pegged her for someone like that." Rose told him.

Bruce nodded. "Did you have the flu or something?"

"Food poisoning." Rose said quickly.

"Really? From what?" Bruce asked.

"Alex's cooking." She told him. "I mean—April's. I mean…you know what, we were out at this restaurant and Eva forced me to eat snails."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Rose nodded quickly. "Yes. Really. So it says here that you have a press conference that lasts five hours today. How is that even possible?"

"Well I was thinking about introducing you as a partner." Bruce said slowly.

Rose looked up at him. "I couldn't possibly do that."

"Oh come on, Rose. Please? You know the inner workings of this company, and Mr. Fox is ready to retire." Bruce said.

"Lucius? Really?" Rose asked.

Bruce nodded. "So it only makes sense for you to take over for him after he leaves."

Rose blinked and then she smiled. "I appreciate the thought, Bruce, but I'm not sure if I'm, cut out for that much responsibility."

Bruce set his hand on hers. "Please?"

Rose blushed. "Only if I can still set your schedule."

Bruce chuckled and realized his hand was on hers, and he pulled it away, blushing himself a little.

"Of course." He told her. "Lucius will clean out his desk and then we'll set the office up for you."

"That won't be necessary, Bruce. I like this office. It's big enough, and close to yours." Rose replied.

"As you wish." Bruce said caringly.

****

Alexis smiled as she sat down at her desk and pulled out her things. Her schedule said that she would be getting a visit from Wolverine today, and she would be getting her interview. As she got her things ready, she looked up as Jane knocked on the door.

"So today a mutant walks through our doors." Jane said.

Alexis grinned. "I am so excited you don't even know."

Jane nodded. "I can only imagine."

"So what do you think? Do you think he'll be some wimpy guy who got the long end of the stick?" Alexis joked.

Before Jane could answer, the phone rang and Alexis answered it.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hi, this is Logan. You think we could meet at your house instead? It's best if I stay on the down low." Logan said.

Alexis sighed. "Sure. Be there in twenty minutes."

She hung up the phone and Jane looked confused.

"What's going on?" Jane asked.

Alexis sighed and grabbed her things. "He wants it to be completely inconspicuous, so he's going to my house. I'll have the article typed out by tonight."

Jane nodded. "Looking forward to reading it."

Alexis took her things out to her car and then drove all the way home, parking in the garage and then getting out of the car and going up the walkway, opening the front door and looking at a very startled Rose.

"What are you doing here, Rose?" Alexis asked.

"I could ask you the same question. What are _you_ doing here, Alex?" Rose asked.

"I'm here for work." Alexis replied.

"Oh." Rose said, defeated. "I'm here because I took the day off."

"Why'd you take the day off?" Alexis asked.

"Well I got promoted to Bruce's partner, and so I used the whole, 'this is a lot to take in, especially after Aunt Denise' excuse." Rose said.

"So what are you doing?" Alexis asked.

Rose slowly showed her hands since they had been behind her back, and revealed Dreyer's Cookie Dough Ice Cream in one hand, and a spoon in the other, smiling awkwardly.

"Go up to your closet." Alexis said.

Rose smiled. "Thanks. I got nervous when you opened the front door cause I thought Willoughby and I were the only ones home and he's in the basement cleaning, and—"

Alexis held up her hand. "Go to your closet, Rose."

Rose laughed. "I will, but only because I want to, Missy. Don't order me around when I'm the older sister."

Rose pointed her spoon at her and playfully and then they both smiled at each other and Rose went to her room. Alexis set things up in her office on the ground floor, and then after about twenty minutes the doorbell rang and she heard footsteps on the stairs.

"I'll get it!" Rose called.

"What? But? Your music." Alexis said.

"Oh Alex, I was in the bathroom. I'll get it!" Rose replied.

"Oh my God you're on a sugar high and that's Wolverine for the interview!" Alexis said as Rose sprinted off and opened the door in a grand gesture.

"Well hello rugged piece of sex." Rose said, smirking.

Logan smirked too. "Well hello, Alexis."

"Are you sure you're here for my sister, because the steamy men of the world normally come for me. By the way, I'm Rose, Alexis's older sister. Nice to meet you." Rose said, holding out her hand.

Logan shook it and then Alexis pushed Rose out of the way.

"Forgive my sister, she's on a bit of a sugar high." Alexis said.

Rose bit her lip and smiled at Logan, waving her fingers at him.

"Nice to meet you, Handsome." Rose said, and then bounded up the stairs.

"She's a firecracker." Logan told her.

"Tell me about it." Alexis said.

****

Eva leaned into Peter, their fingers entwined and she smiled as he kissed her softly.

"I'm sorry about this morning." She told him.

Peter smiled and brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face.

"It's perfectly all right, Eva. April's your older sister, and she feels she needs to take care of you now that your mother's gone." Peter explained.

Eva nodded. "Yeah, I know. I wish you didn't have to go so soon though."

"Well New York isn't the same without me you know." Peter joked.

Eva smiled. "You must be something else."

"You mean you didn't all ready know that?" Peter asked.

Eva giggled. "You think you're all that, don't you?"

Peter kissed her again, and then his smile faded a bit and she knew he had something important to tell her.

"Eva?" He asked in a more serious voice.

"Yes?" Eva answered quietly.

"I want you to come to New York with me. I have something to show you." He said.

"What? Now?" Eva asked.

Peter nodded. "Yeah. Now."

"I can't, Peter. Believe me, I want to go to New York with you, but with Mom just passing away, and Thanksgiving coming up, I really just can't." She said. "Sorry."

Peter shook his head. "Don't be sorry. Come up for Christmas? Please?"

Eva smiled and nodded. "Yeah. All right. Christmas."

"Flight 235 from Gotham to New York is now boarding." A voice announced over the intercom.

"I guess that's my flight." Peter said, kissing her swiftly. "I'll see you at Christmas."

Eva nodded. "Christmas."

Peter slowly let go of her hands and went to board the plane, and then Eva went to the street and hailed a taxi. She was rather quiet until she realized that the taxi driver looked a little familiar—like from out of one of Alexis's magazine articles.

"Hi." Eva said.

"Hello." The man said.

"Those are some interesting glasses." Eva replied.

The man smiled. "I've always liked to be different."

"You wouldn't happen to be Cyclops would you? My cousin, Alex, writes articles about mutants." Eva explained. "And sorry if that offends you."

The man laughed. "No, that's quite all right. I am in fact Cyclops, as it were, but people normally call me Scott."

Eva smiled. "I'm Eva. So…why are you driving a taxi?"

"Actually I commandeered it because I knew that Logan was giving your cousin an interview today." Scott explained. "and… he stole my bike." He said rather possessively.

"Oh. Well then I guess you knew I was going to be around so you could get to my house." Eva said.

Scott shook his head. "Not at all. You being here was completely a plus."

Eva smiled. "Well okay then."

They talked until they got to the house, and then Eva led Scott up to the front door and Willoughby opened it before Eva touched the doorknob.

"Oh! Welcome home, Eva. I was just about to go run some errands so I could start making dinner. And who is this?" Willoughby asked.

"Oh, this is Scott. He's Logan's friend." Eva replied.

Willoughby smiled. "Nice to meet you, Scott. I'll be back soon, Eva."

Willoughby kissed her forehead, and then Scott and Eva went inside.

****

April sat in the newsroom with Arthur, and they both went through the stories they had been given to follow. There were no really good stories though.

"There was a group of hoodlums arrested today for shoplifting?" April asked in a tired voice. "Give me a break."

"Here it says that at Wayne Enterprises, Mr. Lucius Fox is retiring." Arthur suggested.

"Which is a story we can cover tomorrow as well, because by then we'll know who's replacing him, and that gives us a better story. We want something cutting edge, Arthur." April said, resting her head on her hands.

"All that's here is shoplifting, new Wayne Enterprises things, and a bank robbery where they know the culprit, they just can't find them." Arthur said.

April sighed again because Gotham was a city of crime—so things like petty theft were really no-brainers, and she didn't want to waste her talents covering them.

"What about this?" Arthur asked.

"A robbery at the museum?" April asked incredulously. "Arthur, really."

Arthur shrugged. "Robberies at the museum don't happen that often."

"They do when it's Joker. Let a different station cover it." April said.

"April?" Donovan, the anchor asked.

"Yeah?" April asked, looking up from the looming nothing in front of her.

"Mike called in sick. I need you to do the weather." Donovan told her.

April gave him a look. "The weather?"

"Yes." Donovan said sternly.

"Fine." April said, not wanting to piss him off to the point that she'd lose her job.

"So you'll do the weather, which is the same practically everyday, but you won't cover the bank robbery?" Arthur asked.

"Who says I can't do both?" April asked, knowing that with slim pickings she had to do something.

Arthur nodded and then he picked up the camera and got things ready to cover the robbery while April smoothed out her clothes and went to stand in front of the green screen for the weather.

"And you're on in 5,4." Arthur said, and then held up three, fingers, then two, then one, and then April spoke.

"Good afternoon, Gotham." April said with a smile. "Today has been rather decent, but tonight we're expecting a cold front. The artic air will travel with the winds from the north, all the way to our city." April explained, motioning her hands over the screen. "Can you say chilly? Bundle up. Back to you, Donovan."

As soon as the camera cut away from her she frowned.

"What was that?" Arthur asked.

"I think that was Donovan's crappy writing on the teleprompter." April replied. "This robbery had better be worth it."

Arthur nodded and then the two of them went off to the museum and April gave him a defiant look because no one was there.

"See? Joker is known to do this." April said.

"But is he known to take captives?" Arthur asked.

April looked to see that Joker was holding several people hostage, and so she got Arthur to get the tape rolling, and she waited for Arthur to count her in.

"It seems that Joker has tried to rob the museum once again. However, he has several hostages. It may be rather beneficial to get the police down here to talk him out of things—maybe even Batman." April said.

Arthur stopped rolling the tape and April called Donovan.

"Hello?" Donovan answered.

"You need to put my story on. There are hostages at the museum." April told him.

"You mean the museum robbery was more than just an assumption?" Donovan asked.

"Yes!" April cried.

"All right. You'll go live in five minutes." Donovan explained.

"Do you think we should go under cover?" April asked.

"We could, but maybe that would be a terribly bad idea." Arthur told her.

"Maybe, but I really feel that it would be a good inside scoop to figure out what Joker wants this time." April said.

Arthur sighed. "And how do you expect to get inside, April?"

April pondered that. "We'll find a way to get a closer look, Arthur."


	6. Drunkenness and Bank Robberies

Rose sat in her closet laughing at every little thing—she really shouldn't have eaten that entire gallon of ice cream. Lucky for her she wasn't gaining any weight, but she was definitely on a sugar high. She heard the door open, and then she heard a man's voice and she went to the stairs and smiled with a flirtatious smile.

"Well hello studly piece of sex." Rose said.

"She's had too much ice cream, today." Eva told Scott.

"Hello." Scott said, waving a little. "I'm Scott."

"I'm Rose." She replied.

"She's in love with Bruce Wayne. You know, Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises? However due to him not focusing attention on her, she's been sitting in her closet with her Batman pictures and eating gallons of Dreyer's Cookie Dough Ice Cream." Eva told him.

Rose's jaw dropped and then she gave a smile and a wave.

"I think I'll go now. Nice to meet you, Scott." Rose said.

"You too, Rose." Scott replied, blushing a bit at the awkward silence as Rose stood there at the top of the stairs watching them turn towards the study.

"Sorry." Eva said. "I just—sometimes things slip out."

Scott smiled. "It's okay. So where is Logan?"

"You should wait out here for him. Alex will kill you if you go into her study without asking—or even if you do ask and she's busy." Eva said. "I'm going to go talk to Rose."

When she heard that, Rose went into her room and sighed as she looked at Batman.

"I can't believe she did that." Rose told the framed Batman picture as she took the photo off the wall.

"_I can't believe it either, Rose_." Rose replied in a deep voice, pretending to be Batman.

"I mean especially knowing what she knows about Bruce." Rose said. "You'd never do that to me, would you Batman?"

"_Of course not, Rose. Our love will burn forever_." Rose-Batman replied.

Rose smiled and kissed the framed photo as Eva walked into the room and then she looked over at Eva as she heard a gasp.

"Um…I think I'll leave you two alone." Eva said.

"No, that's okay. Batman and I have no problems showing our affection." Rose replied.

"_Really, Eva, you may stay if you please_." Rose-Batman said.

"I'm really sorry that I said that to Scott. I wasn't thinking. I guess—I guess I miss Peter and I think you should tell Bruce how you feel." Eva said.

"_If she tells him how she feels then I won't matter anymore_." Rose-Batman told her.

Eva took the photo from her and Rose looked at her.

"Okay, leave Batman out of this conversation, Rose." Eva replied.

Rose sighed. "Sorry. I just—Bruce doesn't—he won't care if I like him or not. We have this new gala thing coming up in a couple days, and I'm sure he's going to ask Monica again."

Eva hugged her. "You know what? Maybe you should get back at him the female way, Rose. Make him jealous."

Rose smiled. "I think you're onto something."

****

Alexis picked up her notepad and looked at Logan.

"So how long have you been Wolverine?" She asked.

Logan gave her a look and she sighed.

"Look, Wolverine, if you don't answer these questions then 1) how am I supposed to write an article about you, and 2) how are you supposed to 'clear your name'?" Alexis asked.

Logan sighed. "Look, I was created. I don't remember anything that happened before the last 16 years."

"Oh." Alexis said. "So you're not an ordinary mutant?"

Logan shook his head. "These claws that I have were scientifically grafted onto my skeleton. My entire skeleton is made out of adamantium. It's an indestructible metal that was made a part of me. I don't know when, how, or why they did it to me, but I was created. I was already a mutant though. I've always had this extremely high regenerative property, and so I was the perfect test subject."

Alexis nodded, and wrote it all down.

"Wow. I didn't know. So you could say that scientists brought this upon themselves? By doing tests with mutants they're just asking for mutants to fight back with all they have?" Alexis asked.

Logan nodded. "Yeah. I mean I will always say that humans have it coming for what they do to discriminate against us, but at the same time the majority of us just want to be left alone and accepted—we don't want to fight."

"What brings you to Gotham?" Alexis asked.

Logan shrugged. "I took Scott's bike and just drove somewhere."

"Scott?" Alexis asked.

Logan smiled. "Cyclops."

Alexis's eyes lit up. "Damn! You're just connected to them all aren't you?"

"Well I do teach at Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters. I'm around mutants all the time." Logan said.

Alexis smiled. "Seriously? You know Professor Xavier himself?"

Logan nodded. "Yes, I do."

"This is fantastic!" Alexis exclaimed. "Where's this school?"

"I don't think I should tell you." Logan replied.

Alexis sighed. "What? Why not?"

"Because as a reporter you should have already done your research for this interview." He said.

Alexis frowned. "If I had known you taught at the academy, I would have looked up more things about it."

Logan nodded. "Right. So is that all the questions you have for me?"

"Can I see them?" Alexis asked quickly as he stood up to go.

Logan showed her his claws and she reached out to stroke them, pulling away as he smirked a little bit.

"Sorry. They're just fascinating." Alexis said.

Logan shrugged and retracted them. "It's quite all right, really."

"So I guess that's it. I'll put the interview together and then I'll publish it soon." Alexis told him.

Logan nodded and then Alexis opened the door for him and beamed as she saw Scott.

"You must be Cyclops!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, hello Logan." Eva smiled, having just come down the stairs.

"Hello again, Eva." Logan said.

"Rose sends her best regards and apologies." Eva told them.

"She shouldn't worry about it. The world needs more firecrackers." Logan replied.

****

Eva waved as Scott and Logan took off. She turned to Alexis who was beaming and reading over her notes, and then she sighed.

"I think you and I should hold an intervention with Rose." Eva said.

Alexis looked up and stopped smiling. "Why?"

"Because she's doing more than just eating ice cream…I found one of the bottles of cheap wine that Willoughby hides." Eva explained.

Alexis sighed. "Let's go."

"No, not right now. She's crossed from a little scitzo, to completely and utterly depressed. She's crying her eyes out right now." Eva said.

Alexis nodded. "All right. We'll do an intervention at breakfast in the morning before she goes to work."

"How about after work because April should be around tomorrow. We don't want to freak her our before work now do we?" Eva asked.

"Good point. Look, I'm going to go ahead and put this article together, and then I'm going to talk to you more about it later." Alexis said.

Eva just nodded as Alexis hurried off to her room, and then she went to answer the phone as it rang.

"Hello?" Eva answered.

"Hi. This is Clark Kent from Metropolis. Is April there by any chance?" Clark asked.

"No, she's at work right now, but this is her little sister, Eva. Can I take a message?" Eva asked.

"Can you just have her call me back?" Clark asked.

"Absolutely Clark. Does she have your number?" Eva asked.

Clark chuckled. "Yes, she should. If she doesn't call back today, I'll just give her a try tomorrow."

"Perfect. She has the day off tomorrow." Eva explained.

"All right. I'll try back tomorrow then. Night, Eva." Clark said.

"Night, Clark." Eva replied, hanging up the phone.

Eva sighed a bit at the quiet house, and then she went to the television and turned it on, switching through stations. When she turned on the news, she smiled a bit as they talked about how Batman had been called to a robbery attempt, but wasn't as thrilled when she saw that they had just put on some live footage from inside the museum.

"This is reporter April Dulsche with Channel 7. I'm reporting from inside the Gotham Museum where Joker has once again decided to break in. However, this time he has several hostages with him." April was saying on television as she was obviously crawling through some type of enclosed space backwards.

"ALEX! ROSE!" Eva cried.

Alexis came running out of her office and Rose came bounding down the stairs wiping off her face as they heard Eva's scream.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

Eva pointed to the television. "April's inside the museum where Joker has taken hostages."

"That stupid girl." Alexis said.

****

April had thought that crawling in through the vents would be a marvelous idea. That way they could see what was happening, film what was happening, and get all over where they needed to. However, she hadn't expected it to be such a tight squeeze.

"What's going on now?" Arthur asked as they crawled a bit farther to one of the places where the vents were larger enough to get a pretty good picture.

"Arthur…shut-up." April hissed.

Arthur nodded, and then they filmed Joker and the hostages for a bit.

"Isn't it amazing how long it takes people to actually take me seriously?" Joker asked.

One of the hostages, an old man, kept his mouth shut while a woman spoke up.

"Batman will be here, don't even worry about it." She said.

Joker went over to her and grabbed her face.

"Oh, I'm counting on it." Joker told her.

Joker then went over to the television hanging in the museum off a little ways, and April's eyes widened as the news was playing her live feed.

"Oh this is just great. Well this reporter has been almost found. Arthur! Move!" April hissed.

Arthur turned around and they began to crawl when a loud shatter was heard and they found themselves falling out of the duct and landing on the floor. April broke Arthur's fall, and let out an 'oof' as Joker smiled and leaned over them.

"Well hello there, Gotham. Nice to see you finally sent someone out here to tape my demands." Joker said into the camera.

"Arthur! Get off of me!" April cried.

"Oh! Sorry!" Arthur said, getting off of her.

Joker smiled. "I think it's time I made some demands."

"Yeah, by all means." April said. "Arthur, film the man."

"Um…okay." Arthur replied, pointing the camera in Joker's direction.

"Hello Gotham. Our very own Joker would like to make a few demands, though I'm sure you know that since the camera's been on this whole time." April said, forcing a smile. "Joker?"

She held the microphone out to him and he snatched it from her, causing her to frown at him and gasp.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you manners?" April asked.

Joker gave her a look and then turned to the camera.

"I want a million dollars for now, Gotham. And if you send your police force, your lovely reporter here is going to be the first to die." Joker said.

"What?" April asked after a pause. "What lovely reporter?"

"He's talking about you, April." Arthur whispered.

April glared at him. "No? Ya think?"

Arthur blushed and then his face brightened as a window shattered and Batman showed up.

"It's over, Joker. Let them go." Batman said.

"Hey look, Batman's here." Arthur told April.

April sighed. "Arthur, we have got to get you a life."


	7. Gunpoints and, Love?

Rose sighed as she got up the next morning and grabbed herself some coffee. She had a bad hangover and Eva, April, and Alexis were looking at her funny. After April had gotten home safely, they hadn't thought much about her incident last night until she ate several pancakes and was now on her second thermos of coffee.

"So you shouldn't mix ice cream with cheap wine." April said.

Rose nodded. "Yeah. I know. I was so sick all night."

"I know. We all heard." Alexis replied, shuddering a little.

Rose said goodbye and went out the door, and then she drove all the way to Wayne Tower and went up a few floors, smiling a little, but also confused that Bruce was in her office waiting for her. He stood up when she got there, and then she looked at him funny.

"What?" She asked.

"Morning." He told her.

"Morning." She replied. "Schedule problem?"

Bruce chuckled. "No. I was just saying good morning and letting you know that there's a meeting this morning that you get to attend."

Rose smiled. "Well that will be good."

"Your cousin, April, is coming to do an interview with you live in a couple days since you decided to take the job." Bruce told her.

Rose nodded. "That will be fun."

Bruce smiled. "I know you can do this. Shall we?"

Rose nodded slowly as she stood up and Bruce held the door open for her.

"We shall." She replied.

He led her into the meeting with all the other men of the industry, and then she put her charisma and her ideas to the test, and they treated her like an equal. It was nice to know that she was being treated like her ideas mattered, and she liked being this close to Bruce, it was really nothing that anyone didn't know—except Bruce.

"I'm happy you accepted." Bruce told her.

Rose smiled. "I'm happy I did too. I didn't realize how much I really knew about the company until now. I know more than Morris and he's been here longer."

Bruce chuckled. "That's very true. Why do you think I passed him over for you to take Fox's place?"

Rose blushed. "Thanks for having faith in me. Wow. Where does the time go?"

Rose realized that they had been in meetings all day, and that the lunch she had taken earlier was a long while ago. Getting acquainted with the company left less time for her to work on Bruce's schedule, so they did that for a little while until it was time for her to go home.

When Rose and Bruce parted ways in the parking garage, a man in a mask intercepted her about twenty minutes after Bruce had left. She was going to go back and get her car keys because she had left them in her office, when the man had come out and held her at gunpoint.

"You want money?" Rose asked calmly.

"And any expensive jewelry you have on you." The man said.

"I don't wear expensive jewelry—or any for that matter. But here's the fifty dollars I have in my wallet. You want my credit cards?" She asked.

The man was about to snatch up her wallet when Batman showed up unexpectedly and she smiled a little as he grabbed the man by the collar, and threw him down to the ground.

"You really shouldn't treat a lady like that." Batman told the robber in a deep voice.

"Oh crap, it's Batman." The robber replied.

"Give her back her things." Batman said.

"It's okay, really. He can keep the fifty dollars." Rose told Batman.

Batman looked at her funny. "He won't need it in jail."

Rose nodded, and took the fifty dollars back, watching as Batman tied the man up and then he turned to Rose and smiled.

"You seem okay for a lady that just almost got mugged." Batman said.

Before she could think about what she was doing, Rose placed one hand on either side of his face and pulled him to her, kissing him thankfully.

"Thank you for this, Batman. I'm Rose." She said, holding out her hand.

Batman was still a little surprised, but shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Rose. And don't worry about it. It's what I do." He replied.

Rose smiled and nodded. "I know, but I'm thankful that you saved me. You can go on ahead and go and I'll call the police for him. How'd you find me anyways?"

"I was in the neighborhood. Take care of yourself, Rose." Batman said.

Rose blushed and looked down at the ground.

"You too." She said, but when she looked up he was gone. "What a Dark Knight."

****

Alexis stopped in the middle of eating her mashed potatoes as Rose told them about how she had been at gunpoint.

"He was robbing you in the parking garage?" Alexis asked.

Rose nodded. "Yeah. It makes sense doesn't it?"

"It _was_ the parking garage at Wayne Enterprises." April said, smiling at Willoughby as he passed her more potatoes.

"So how'd you get out of it?" Eva asked, eating some green beans.

"Batman showed up out of nowhere and saved me." Rose said dreamily.

"Oh did he now?" April asked.

Alexis smiled and ate her mashed potatoes as Willoughby nodded at her story.

"So how did you thank your Dark Knight?" Alexis asked.

"Oh, I gave him a kiss. It's what every hero should get from a damsel he's saved." Rose said.

Alexis snorted as Eva smiled.

"So you were a damsel in distress, huh?" Eva asked.

Rose sighed. "No. I just—damn he had inviting lips."

"Enough. I'm eating." Alexis replied.

Rose smiled and then Alexis's cell phone rang and as she went to pick it up, April snatched it from her.

"No phones at the table. You know the rule." April said.

"I'll take the call in the other room." Alexis stressed.

"Fine." April said giving her, her phone back.

Alexis snatched it from her and then she hurried off to her office, calling the person back that April had so rudely hung up on.

"Hello?" Logan answered.

"Hi. You called?" Alexis asked.

"Right. I was wondering if I could ask you not to run the article quite yet." Logan said.

Alexis sighed. "Why?"

"Because I don't want people to know that my name is Logan. I'm not ready for the general public to know that yet." Logan explained.

Alexis smiled. "Good thing I only referred to you as Wolverine then."

"Oh. That's better I guess." Logan said.

"Good. So is that all?" Alexis asked.

"Well you don't have to sound so stuck up about it." Logan told her.

Alexis sighed. "Sorry. Look, my sister was held up at gunpoint tonight and I'm a bit on edge."

"Trouble just follows you everywhere doesn't it?" Logan asked.

Alexis frowned. "Goodnight, Wolverine."

"Bye." Logan told her.

Alexis hung up on him before he had the chance to hang up on her, and then she joined everyone at the dinner table again.

"Wolverine is an asshole." Alexis said.

"I dunno, Alex. I thought Logan was rather sweet." Eva told her.

"I didn't even meet the guy." April said.

"That's because you were too busy crawling into a museum on a whim." Eva replied.

"Really, Eva…he's an asshole." Alexis repeated.

"He's always been nice to me." Eva shrugged.

"And he has the rugged, sexy thing about him going on." Rose added.

Alexis sent Rose a look and then turned to Eva.

"Eva, you're…you. No one is ever mean to you. How many hours did I spend with the guy?" Alexis asked.

"I know, Alex. I know. You should know." Eva said.

"Has Peter called?" Rose asked, changing the subject.

Eva shook her head. "No, but…well I'm going to New York to see him for Christmas."

Alexis, April and Rose stopped talking for a little while and Willoughby spoke up in the silence.

"Well that's fantastic." Willoughby told her. "So you two are an item now?"

Eva blushed. "Yes. He wanted me to come up when he left, but…well…I wanted to be here with you guys since Thanksgiving is soon and all."

"Why don't you invite him to Thanksgiving?" Alexis asked.

Eva turned to April who took a moment, but nodded slowly.

"I just might do that." Eva said.

****

After dinner, Eva went upstairs to her room and called Peter. He answered his cell phone happily.

"Hello, Eva." He said.

Eva smiled. "Hello, Peter. How are you?"

"I'm good, but I miss you." He told her.

Eva blushed. "I miss you too."

"So how are things?" Peter asked.

"Well I think April is still mad at you, but that's only because she thinks we…had sex." Eva whispered.

"Oh. Wow." Peter replied, and Eva could sense the embarrassment in his voice. "But she knows we didn't, right?"

Eva shrugged. "I told her we didn't, but she's the older sister you know? She doesn't necessarily believe me."

"Oh. Not that you know…well I just don't want her to think I'm stripping you of your innocence." Peter said.

Eva giggled. "I get it. Hey…you want to come here for Thanksgiving?"

"I would love that actually." Peter replied.

"Your Aunt is welcome to come too. The more the merrier, I'm sure. Rose wants to try out cooking for everyone and filling up the house again. That larger dining room just isn't the same with five of us spread out over that huge table." Eva said.

"I think Aunt May would like that a lot." Peter replied.

"How…I feel like every time we talk I bring up something stupid, but…how is Mary Jane taking this?" Eva asked.

"She's…well annoyed you 'took _her man_', but it doesn't matter. I don't mind that you did." He said.

Eva blushed a little. "I'm glad you don't mind. So I'll see you next week?"

"Of course." Peter said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Hey…Peter?" Eva asked, as there was a small pause.

"Yes, Eva?" Peter asked her.

"I love you." She told him softly.

"I love you too." He replied.

"Sweet dreams." She said, smiling.

"Sweet dreams." He told her before they hung up.

Eva smiled as she hung up the phone and then she curled up and went to bed, waking up the next morning to her alarm clock. She reached over and turned it off, smiling a bit and then climbing out of bed, pulling on some clothes and then going down to breakfast, smiling as Rose grabbed some coffee and Willoughby served them waffles.

"Man, all this starch in our diets, Willoughby." Eva smiled.

Willoughby chuckled. "I know how much you love waffles, Eva."

Eva nodded. "I do. I'm thinking of submitting some pictures I took of Cyclops to your magazine, Alex."

Alexis smiled. "Jane will pay you good money for it."

"Where's April?" Eva asked.

"Oh. Clark called this morning saying he was in the neighborhood and they're going out to breakfast." Rose said. "I'll see you guys tonight, all right?"

Eva smiled. "All right."

As Rose left, Eva turned to Alexis and Alexis smiled.

"So what do you think is up with Clark?" Eva asked.

Alexis shrugged. "I think he really likes April."

****

"I was surprised when you called today." April said.

Clark smiled and held the door open for her.

"Did your sister let you know I called the other day?" Clark asked.

April shook her head. "But that's probably because I was in a museum being held up by Joker."

"Wow. You okay?" Clark asked.

April nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm here aren't I?"

Clark blushed a little and then they sat down in the little café.

"This place is really nice." April said.

Clark smiled. "When I was here last I wanted to try it. I guess we can try it together."

April nodded. "I guess so."

"You into coffee?" Clark asked.

April shrugged. "I'm not addicted to it like Rose, but I like it. Hey…they have a gingerbread latte."

Clark smiled. "Is there anything else you want? A pastry? Cheesecake?"

April smiled. "So what brings you here, Clark?"

Clark blushed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you're suddenly here." April said.

"I just thought we could hang out." Clark told her. "We had a lot in common at the gala. Also…I'm here for that tomorrow night."

"The newest one? Rose is hoping Bruce will ask her this time since they've been spending so much more time together since the promotion." April said.

"I wondered about those two. I mean, Bruce talks about her a lot, but he never showed real interest in her." Clark explained. "Rose though—I was at a gala last year and I saw the way she looked at him."

April nodded. "Yeah. Too bad, since Monica, she decided she liked Batman better."

Clark raised an eyebrow. "Really? I wouldn't have…wow."

"You wouldn't have what?" April asked as the waitress came up to them.

"Two gingerbread lattes please." Clark said.

"Could I get a cinnamon roll please?" April asked.

"I could use one too." Clark told the waitress.

"So you wouldn't what?" April asked.

Clark shrugged. "I just think that Batman and Bruce are pretty opposite."

April nodded, and then they ate the cinnamon rolls and drank the lattes, and then Clark went home with her since she insisted he stay in the house instead of going to a hotel.

"Ooooh. And who is the hottie?" Eva asked, as Rose grabbed some things.

"A _friend_." April stressed.

Clark paused for a moment and then nodded, and then Eva nodded too.

"Hi, Clark." Rose said.

"Hey, Rose." Clark replied.

"I need to get back to work." Rose said. "Have fun guys."


	8. Secrets and a Fancy Party

As Rose walked back into the office, she saw Bruce leaning against her doorframe and she walked past him and set her stuff down, looking up at him.

"Is there a problem?" Rose asked.

"No." Bruce said with a smile. "Actually, I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the gala with me tomorrow night."

Rose looked up at him as she sat in her chair, a little startled, and then she opened her mouth to speak.

"Actually, I was planning on asking Batman, Bruce." Rose said.

She wasn't sure why she had said that, but it had come out of her mouth nonetheless.

"Batman?" Bruce asked.

Rose nodded. "Yeah. He saved me from gunpoint last night, and it's the least I can do to repay him."

"You were at gunpoint?" Bruce asked.

Rose nodded. "Yeah, but I'm fine. Really."

"Why didn't you tell me you were at gunpoint?" He asked.

Rose shrugged. "I—I'm fine now. I guess I didn't think it was important."

"So…you're asking Batman?" Bruce asked.

Rose sighed. "Yes. I'm asking Batman."

"What are you going to do, use the bat signal for the wrong reasons?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not _that_ stupid." Rose replied. "I'm going to go get myself held up at gun point again."

Bruce's eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah. I figured I'd go to the slums of Gotham and wear one of my expensive coats." Rose explained.

Bruce sighed. "Okay. If that's what you'd rather do than go with me."

"Bruce, I owe Batman. It's nothing personal." Rose said, shrugging a little.

Bruce left her office, and then later on when she went home, Rose paced her room and pondered things. Actually go to the slums of Gotham, or do Bruce's suggestion? Bruce's suggestion was definitely less dangerous. So without really thinking, she got onto their roof and she used a rather large light that they had up there just in case, and she hung cloth on it strategically to achieve the bat signal. When Batman showed up on her roof, she hugged herself as the wind nipped around her and smoothed down her nightgown.

"The Bat signal should only be used for emergencies." Batman told her.

"This is an emergency." Rose said.

Batman sighed. "What is it?"

"I want you to go to the gala with me tomorrow night." Rose told him.

"The Wayne Enterprises gala?" Batman asked, and Rose nodded. "This is your emergency?"

Rose sighed. "Batman…please?"

"I can't. I'll be out of town tomorrow night." He said.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're _Batman_. Gotham's hero. You're not going to be out of town. If you don't want to go with me, just tell me." Rose told him.

"No, no. It's not that I don't want to go with you. It's just that it's like you said—I'm Gotham's hero. I need to be there tomorrow night." Batman explained.

"Batman, you don't understand. I'm completely head over heels in love with Bruce Wayne, and I need to make him jealous." Rose said desperately.

Batman was silent for a moment and Rose looked at the ground.

"You're not going to help me…are you?" She asked.

"I really wish I could help you get him to notice you." He said.

****

Alexis woke up in a rather fantastic mood. She got out of bed and bustled around, happy that she had been invited to the gala by one of Rose's colleagues. Sure, at first she hated the idea that her sister had said she would go, but she needed a break since the Wolverine incident over the phone. When she was dressed, she went downstairs to breakfast, and then Rose hurried over to her, her coffee mug in her hand meaning she had the day off today.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"What's Logan's number?" Rose asked.

"Why?" Alexis answered, sitting down as Willoughby gave her some scrambled eggs.

"Because Batman can't go with me, and I still need to make Bruce jealous. So…can I get Logan's number?" Rose asked.

"I can't go around giving away my client's information." Alexis told her.

"Fine. If you want me to be miserable, fine." Rose said.

"Okay." Alexis replied.

Alexis started eating her eggs, and Rose sighed miserably and sat down. Alexis smiled as she bit into the warm, gooey, wonderfully prepared, light, buttered eggs. Rose rested her head on the table, and then she smiled a bit.

"Are you going to work today?" Rose asked.

"Yes…why?" Alexis asked.

Rose shook her head. "No reason. You're just dressed…that's all."

Alexis raised an eyebrow and then she finished off her eggs and went to work. When she got there, it was rather slow, and so she started an article about Cyclops until her phone rang.

"This is Alexis Meckenzie, how may I help you?" Alexis answered.

"Hi. This is Logan. I was wondering what I should wear tonight since your sister isn't answering the phone." He said.

"What?" Alexis asked, rather confused. "Wear what you want. Wait…what do you mean my sister isn't answering the phone?"

"I mean she called and asked me to this gala and I don't know whether I should just wear the tux, or if I should wear a tie with it." Logan told her.

Alexis sighed and slapped her face with her hand.

"That girl is…wear a tie." She said.

"Seriously?" Logan asked.

"Oh my God! If you're not going to take my advice, then don't ask for it!" Alexis told him, and hung up the phone. "Asshole."

Alexis took a deep breath and then she looked down at her article and was about to read it over when Jane rapped her knuckles on her door.

"Your sister is on line one for you." Jane said.

Alexis closed her eyes and sighed loudly.

"Okay." She told Jane, and then picked up the phone and pressed the button next to the blinking red light and it turned green. "Hello?"

"Hey, Alex. I kind of was wondering if I should wear my slinky red number, or my little black dress?" Rose asked.

"Rose! I'm at work!" Alexis said.

"I'm sorry, Alex. Hey…wanna read one of your articles like old times?" Rose asked.

Alexis smiled a little. "Okay. _Cyclops received his name because of his visor. It is a common misconception that since he is called 'Cyclops' he has one eye, but he has two. His visor collects the energy that his eyes radiate, so by wearing his visor, he protects people from his optical blast. Sometimes he wears sunglasses that make it apparent he has two eyes, but his visor is a comfort to him. Cyclops is not dangerous, in fact, he is fighting for humans everywhere_."

"I think that's terrific, Alex. I like how you put in that he fights for humans. Makes the reader connect with him more." Rose said.

Alexis smiled. "Rose…wear the red number."

Rose laughed. "Thanks, Alex."

****

Eva picked through her closet for something to wear since she'd gotten up late that day. She was flipping through zip-up sweatshirts and jeans when Rose rappd her knuckles on her open door.

"Hey. I made some more eggs for people and I'm on my way to get April and Clark up. You might want to get the food while it's hot." Rose said.

Eva smiled. "Thanks, Rose. Hey…what do you think it'll be like at the gala tonight? I mean…how many great picture taking opportunities will there be?"

Rose smiled. "I'll see what I can do about putting you on the guest list."

Eva blushed. "You really don't have to do that."

"Yes I do." Rose said. "I really, really do."

Eva smiled as Rose turned to leave her room.

"Thank you." Eva told her.

"No problem." Rose replied, going down the hall to wake up April and Clark.

When Eva finally got downstairs, Rose came over to her with a platter of food as Willoughby poured her some juice.

"Where's Clark?" Eva asked.

"Clark's still sleeping." Rose told her.

April nodded and then pointed to the television in the other room and Willoughby went over to it and turned up the volume.

"Today Gotham city had a visit from Metropolis's very own Superman. Together he and Batman put Joker behind bars." The reporter said.

"Damn it! That should have been _my_ scoop!" April said. "I'm going into work."

"That's not necessary." Rose told her. "You're not going to get a better scoop today."

April nodded. "Good point. I just—God I miss Superman. I mean look at him."

April smiled a bit and Eva laughed.

"Yep…you have it bad. I guess that means you're going to need another box for your binders of chronological articles about the man of steel." Eva said.

April laughed, and then Eva looked up as Rose smiled.

"By the way, Eva, Alex said she could use you as her photographer tonight so I put you on the guest list. You might want to find something to wear." Rose told her.

Eva's face lit up. "Thank you, Rose!"

She threw her arms around Rose's neck and then quickly finished her eggs and juice and ran up the stairs to rummage through her closet. As she looked through her closet, she was torn between two different dresses: the black one with the green satin trim, or the brown one.

"Which one?" She asked out loud.

"I like the black one." Rose told her. "It's nice and simple, and yet elegant."

"I like the brown one because more of you is covered." April replied.

Eva sighed. "I don't know. I like both of them. Which one works best for the gala?"

"They both work fine." Rose answered. "You'll look beautiful in either one, and it's not like you have to come dressed super fancy."

Eva nodded. "I think I should ask Alex. I mean, I am definitely going as her photographer so I don't want to make her look bad."

"Call her." Rose said.

"I'm going to go get Clark up." April replied.

Eva nodded as Rose and April left her room, and then she picked up the phone and called Alexis.

"This is Alexis Meckenzie, how may I help you?" Alexis answered.

"Hey, Alex. It's me…Eva." Eva said.

"I know." Alexis replied.

Eva blushed. "I was just wondering if I should wear the black dress with the green satin trim, or the brown dress tonight."

"Why is everyone asking me what to wear tonight?" Alexis asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that what I wear is appropriate since I'm going to be your photographer." Eva said.

"Awww. At least you have good intentions. Since I'm wearing my rust-colored formal, you should wear the black one." Alexis told her.

Eva smiled. "Thank you."

"No problem, Kiddo." Alexis replied.

****

April knocked on the guest door and Clark opened it, completely dressed and wide-awake.

"Hi." April said, caught off guard. "I thought you were still sleeping. Um…breakfast is on the table."

Clark smiled. "Smells good."

"Rose made it…but it's probably cold by now." April told him.

Clark nodded. "That's okay."

"They're really good eggs though, and Willoughby squeezed the oranges to make the orange juice himself." April added.

Clark smiled. "Sounds like a real homemade breakfast."

April smiled and the two of them went down to the kitchen and April sat there as Clark began to eat.

"Are you just going to watch me eat?" Clark asked with a grin on his face.

April blushed. "No…of course not. I just—I already ate."

"Do you work today?" Clark asked.

April shook her head. "Nope."

Clark beamed. "Good. That means we can spend another day together. How about some sight seeing at the museum?"

April laughed. "Don't you have anything better to do than to hang out with me?"

Clark blushed and shrugged. "No."

April nodded. "All right. Let me go get properly dressed for the museum though."

Clark nodded, and then April went upstairs and rummaged through her closet. She wasn't quite sure what to wear, or why Clark was suddenly so focused on hanging out with her. She decided on a burnt orange top that brought out her brown eyes, and a nice pair of slacks. When she went downstairs, Clark smiled as he finished off his juice and Willoughby cleared away his plates.

"You look fabulous, April." Willoughby told her.

"Fabulous doesn't even do you justice." Clark breathed.

April blushed and then she waved her hand.

"Stop that, Clark. Let's go." She said.

Clark nodded and then they hurried out of the house and to the museum, Clark not paying as much attention to the statues as he was to April, but she was oblivious to it.

"So what do you think about this piece?" April asked.

"I think it's beautiful." Clark said, smiling at her.

April turned to him as he looked at the piece and smiled.

"Really? I think it's freakishly sad." She told him.

Clark cleared his throat. "Yeah. I mean the mother is obviously going hungry to save her children."

"Did you have to read the description to get that?" April asked.

Clark blushed a little. "Y-Yeah."

April smiled and touched his shoulder, and he had to hold his breath for a moment.

"That's okay. So which wing do you want to go to next?" April asked.

"How about the Renaissance one?" Clark suggested.

April nodded. "All right."

They walked to the Renaissance wing and as they looked around, Clark couldn't hold the question in any longer, and cut April off in the middle of a sentence as she began to talk about how she interpreted one of the paintings.

"Will you go to the gala with me tonight, April?" Clark asked.

April shut her mouth in amazement and then she opened it again but no sound came out.

"I'm so sorry I cut you off. That was rude of me. I just—I'd be honored if you accompanied me there tonight. I mean if you don't want to that's fine, but I was just hoping that—" He began, but April cut him off.

"Yes. It could be fun. Don't worry about cutting me off. I didn't have anything important to say anyways." She said with a smile. "So maybe we should go home and get ready since afternoon is approaching and we only have a few hours to get ready?"

Clark nodded. "Yeah. Good point. Let's go."


	9. Gala Blues Pt 1

Rose finished curling her hair and then she did her make-up and smiled.

"Bruce, eat your freaking heart out." Rose said.

As she finished putting her sparkly hairpins in her hair, she grinned more and looked at the dress in the mirror. The dress was a deep blood red and it was sleeveless with sequins along the edges of the top and the bottom of the dress. The bodice was fitted, and the skirt was long and flowy, and she had matching strappy red shoes to go with the ensemble, and a slit up the right side that ended right above her knee.

"Well that is definitely going to make the man jealous." Eva said, her hair strategically curled and her black dress hugging her curves in all the right ways.

"I'm sad Peter can't see you like this. You're beautiful." Rose told her.

Eva blushed. "I came up because Alex is finally ready to go and her date's already here, and Clark and April are still getting ready. Logan called and said he's on his way."

Rose smiled. "Thanks, honey. Can you tell Matthew that the mini bar is in the living room but that if he gets even close to drunk he can expect a pitfall?"

Eva nodded. "Of course."

Eva hurried downstairs and then Rose went down the hall and opened April's room, smiling at her. April turned and smiled too, her hair pulled up sophisticatedly, and she was in her spaghetti-strap turquoise dress. The dress was long and satin, and she was wearing a nice necklace with it.

"You look great." Rose said.

"You too." April told her.

Rose smiled and then the doorbell rang and Alexis got it.

"ROSE! WOLVERINE IS HERE FOR YOU!" Alexis called up the stairs.

Rose went down the stairs and Logan smirked a little.

"Well, well, well, I'm sure our plan will work. You look…hot." Logan told Rose.

Rose smiled and then looked up as Clark led April down the stairs. They looked good together, and though April was unaware of it, everyone else was not.

"Well shall we?" Alexis asked.

Eva nodded. "Please."

They all got into the limo as Willoughby waved goodbye, and then when they got to the gala, they all got out and dispersed, Rose and Logan went to see Bruce, who was startled that Rose found such a handsome guy to come with.

"Hey there, Bruce…Monica." Rose added.

"Hello, Rose. And who is your friend?" Bruce asked.

"This is Logan. Logan, this is Bruce." Rose introduced them.

Logan and Bruce shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Bruce." Logan said.

"You too, Logan. So how did you meet Rose?" Bruce asked.

"This charming, thing? I met her when she was in Canada last." Logan told him. "Ever since then I just wanted to get my hands on her."

Rose hit him in the back successively, and then smiled a bit.

"Isn't he funny?" She asked.

Bruce nodded a little. "Absolutely."

"What do you say, Firecracker? Want something to drink?" Logan asked.

Rose looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah. Thanks, Honey."

Logan nodded and then as he went to get them drinks, Rose shot him a look and then forced the smile back as she turned to Bruce.

"It's a wonderful turn-out." Rose said.

****

Alexis smiled at Matthew as he got her a drink.

"Thanks, Matthew." Alexis said.

Matthew nodded. "Yeah. Anytime. I'll be back."

Matthew went off to the bathroom, and Alexis looked up as Logan came to the bar.

"He's interesting." Logan said.

Alexis smirked. "He's quite the man."

Logan scoffed. "Yeah. I'm sure."

Alexis smiled. "No, seriously. Like you'd know what a man is, Wolverine."

"You know, you _could_ call me Logan." Logan told her.

Alexis shrugged. "I _could_, but that doesn't mean I _will_."

Logan nodded. "Right. I'm going to take this champagne over to your sister. You know? The one that appreciates me?"

"You mean the one that's _using_ you?" Alexis asked.

Logan sighed and shook his head as he walked away. They weren't quite aware of it yet, but they were only fighting because they were falling in love. Part of Alexis was being eaten up because Rose was on a date with him, and the other part found Logan to be vulgar and a complete asshole. She wasn't alone though—Logan was feeling the same way. He would much rather be here with Alexis, but if he could help Rose get Bruce, then maybe he could focus more on Alexis.

"Here you go." Logan told Rose as Alexis came up to the collective group.

"Thank you." Rose beamed, taking the champagne.

"Hello, Alex." Bruce said.

"Hi, Bruce. So what do you think of the get together?" Alexis asked.

"I think it's a good turn out. Especially since Rose here designed most of the decoration layout." Bruce told her, trying to draw focus from Logan to himself.

"Wow." Logan said. "That's really good."

To enforce that Rose was in fact here with him and not Bruce, he kissed the top of Rose's head, and though they both felt awkward about it, they played it up to perfection.

"I think Monica and I need to mingle some more." Bruce said, and then he went away as Rose pulled away a bit and smiled.

"We're doing this well." Rose told him. "I don't think he likes you."

Logan smiled. "Then our work is good."

Rose took a sip of the champagne and Alexis sighed.

"What the Hell, Rose? Can't you see this isn't phasing him?" Alexis asked, some jealously leaking out.

"I really think it's working, Alex." Rose replied.

"Whatever." Alexis told her. "Where the Hell is Eva?"

"Alex…are you okay?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. Really. I'm fine." Alexis said as she walked away, Rose suddenly coming the realization that Alexis liked Logan as Alexis went to find Eva.

"There you are!" Alexis cried.

Eva turned to her and blushed.

"Sorry. I was snapping pictures of April and Clark without them knowing. They're hella cute." Eva said.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they really are."

"I just…I wish everyone was as happy as Peter and I." Eva replied.

Alexis sighed. "Yeah. If only the world was that lucky."

****

Eva was saddened that Alexis was suddenly not having a very good time. Even when Matthew came back and tried to cheer her up, Alexis just moped about a bit. Eva sighed and snapped more pictures of people, going over to April and Clark as they talked over some champagne.

"You know, if you let me have a sip of _your_ champagne, then no one gets in trouble." Eva told April.

April laughed. "Absolutely not, Eva."

Eva sighed. "It was worth a shot. So what do you two think?"

"I think it's one of the best galas Bruce has ever thrown." Clark replied.

April smiled. "It _is_ almost better than the last one."

"I'm pretty excited about whatever they're unveiling. When will that process start?" Eva asked. "I need to know about how many pictures I should save for it."

April laughed. "That should happen sometime in the next thirty minutes."

Clark nodded. "It won't be any longer than that."

Eva smiled. "Good. I think I'll go take some pictures of the food and everything, just so I know I've covered everything that Alex might possibly talk about."

Clark and April nodded at her, and so she took off to go and snap some pictures of the wonderfully decorated tables, the people around the decorated bar, and then her phone rang and she looked at the front, smiling that it was Peter.

"Hey." She said happily.

"Hey." Peter replied.

"What's up?" Eva asked.

"Well I thought I'd let you know that that black dress looks wonderful on you." Peter told her.

Eva paused a moment. "Where are you?"

"Turn around." Peter said, having already hung up the phone.

Eva hung up the phone and turned around, beaming, and throwing her arms around Peter's neck.

"You keep spending so much money just coming to see me." Eva said.

Peter smiled. "Actually, I didn't spend anything on this whole trip or evening. Bruce paid for everything and put me on the list because he knew that Rose was upset I couldn't be here with you. I think he likes her."

Eva smiled. "Wow. Maybe Rose should stop trying to make him jealous with Logan then."

Peter shrugged. "Well, enough about them. I have something to show you."

Eva nodded, and let him lead her over to the elevator, where they went up to the roof and Peter shook out his arms.

"What is it, Peter?" Eva asked.

"Well I've been sick today, so hold on." He told her.

"Okay." Eva said.

"Go, web." He said, but nothing happened. "Fly." He said nonchalantly, moving his hand since his normal web throwing wasn't working. "Up, up and away, web." He said, trying again.

"Peter…are you feeling okay?" Eva asked.

"Eva, really…please." He said.

"Okay, Peter." Eva told him lovingly.

"Shazam." He said. "Go! Go! Go, web, go!" He said, doing a funny thing with his hands.

"Peter…" Eva began but he smiled.

"I'm just playing with you, Eva. Watch." He said, and as he flicked his wrist this time, a web shot out of it and grabbed onto a pole. "Do you trust me?"

Eva was amazed, but nodded slowly. "Yes."

She held onto him as they flew through the air, and then when they landed, she looked up into his eyes and smiled.

"I'm…Spiderman." He told her.

She nodded and kissed him. "And I love you."

Peter smiled. "I love you too."

****

April smiled at Clark and set her glass of champagne down and smirked a bit.

"So why did you ask me here?" April asked.

Clark shrugged. "You're a lot of fun to be with, April. I just thought we could hang out."

"Cause we're such good friends?" April asked.

Clark nodded. "Yeah. Cause we're such good friends."

April smiled and was completely unaware of Clark trying to tell her that he liked her more than that.

"What do you think this new gadget is?" April asked.

Clark shrugged a little. "I'm not really sure. I know it has something to do with sunlight though."

"Oh." April said. "I guess that's kind of cool."

Clark chuckled. "Yeah. I think it's kind of cool myself. Basically it converts sunlight into twice the energy that plants do, and then that energy can be used to run businesses, and even grow plants to eat twice as fast."

"Basically it's a machine trying to do Mother Nature's job." Rose said, showing up next to them with Logan.

April nodded. "Oh. That's kind of ridiculous."

Rose nodded with a smile. "I agree."

"So what does Bruce think of all of this?" April asked, pointing between Rose and Logan.

"He isn't buying it." Logan said.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked. "I think he's just surprised I found an attractive man to go with."

Logan smiled. "That being true, if I was jealous of a man with the girl that I liked, I would have punched him by now."

"Maybe Bruce just doesn't deal out physical force when he's not getting what he wants." April said.

"Then you haven't seen Bruce fighting for what he wants." Clark told them.

Rose thought about that a moment and set down the mini sandwich she had picked up and she looked at Clark.

"That's exactly what I needed to hear." She said.

"What?" Clark asked, a little startled.

"He doesn't want me. I'm doing this for absolutely nothing." Rose replied.

"I'm sure that's not what Clark meant." April said, smacking him lightly.

"I mean who wouldn't want you?" Logan asked. "I mean really? Look at you. Plus, you're funny, and sweet."

Rose just shook her head. "No…not at all. I get it."

She walked off and April sighed as Logan thought of the right words to say.

"I don't know what to say." Logan said.

"I didn't mean to say it so she would think like that." Clark protested.

"No, Clark, this isn't _completely_ your fault." April replied.

Clark turned to her. "Not _completely_ my fault?"

"Well if you hadn't said it, she wouldn't have thought it, but it's not your fault she thought it because I mean really…what the Hell is up with Bruce anyways?" April asked.

"Bruce has no idea how to talk to women." Logan said as he stuffed three mini sandwiches into his mouth.

"No…Bruce has no idea how to talk to women he's in love with." Clark replied.

"So he's in love with her?" April asked.

"Then he should tell her." Logan told him.

"I need to go talk to him." Clark decided.


	10. Gala Blues Pt 2

Rose picked up a small éclair and put it in her mouth when Bruce walked over to her.

"So what's up with the small brained muscle man?" Bruce asked.

"Logan happens to be quite smart." Rose said.

Bruce smirked. "Yeah. So what about Batman?"

"I hate Batman." Rose shrugged.

"But I thought you wanted to come here with him." Bruce replied.

Rose looked at him. "That was before the egomaniac decided not help a damsel in distress."

"Please, Rose. When have you ever been in distress?" Bruce asked.

"That's not the point. I was clearly in need, he wouldn't help, and now I hate him." She said.

"No you don't." Bruce told her.

Rose scoffed. "Yes I do. Like you would know, Bruce. What grown man dresses up as a freaking bat anyways?"

"What do you mean by I wouldn't know? That was a little hostile, Rose." Bruce said.

"You wouldn't know because I hate you too. Why else did I say I wouldn't go with you?" Rose said, and instantly regretted it, but she was done trying to pursue him in her twisted ways.

Bruce was shocked for a moment. "Did I do something to make you angry? Because if I did, I'm sorry for it."

"You didn't even get mad about the Logan thing." Rose muttered.

"What?" Bruce asked, having only heard a little of what she said.

"Just…leave me alone, Bruce." Rose said, and walked away from the table.

Clark came over to Bruce as she left and he had a smile on his face.

"Are you all right?" Clark asked as he saw Bruce.

Bruce turned to him. "Actually…I don't know. Rose hates me and Batman, Clark. She hates all of me. Isn't that terrific?"

"But Bruce…I thought you loved her." Clark said.

"I do. I really do." Bruce told him. "But I think I'm too late now."

Rose went over to Alexis and Alexis immediately stopped talking to Matthew and came over to her as she began to cry.

"What's wrong, hon?" Alexis asked.

"Alex…I just did something horrible." Rose said.

"What is it?" Alexis asked.

"I told him I hated him. I told him I hated Batman…which I do. I mean I explained to Batman that I was in love with Bruce and needed to make him jealous, and he just replied, 'I wish I could help him to notice you'. What the Hell?" Rose asked.

"Just go back and tell him you don't hate him." Alexis replied.

Rose shook her head. "I can't do that. I—in my own twisted way, if he really wants me, which I'm sure he doesn't, losing me will make him try that much harder."

"Or…you could tell him how you feel first." Alexis suggested.

Rose shook her head again and blotted her eyes with the handkerchief that Matthew handed to her.

"Thanks, Matt." She said with a little smile. "Alex…as soon as this thing is unveiled, can we go straight home? I don't want an after party."

Alexis nodded. "Absolutely. We'll hold the partying for another night."

Rose smiled. "That would make me so much happier."

****

Alexis sighed as Rose went off and Matthew handed her another glass of champagne and she turned it down.

"I don't feel much like being merry right now." Alexis admitted.

"What's wrong with her?" Matthew asked.

"She's in love with a blind man." Alexis replied.

"Seriously? Well there are surgeries nowadays—" Matthew began before Alexis rolled her eyes and held up her hand to stop him from talking.

"I was speaking metaphorically." Alexis said in a tired voice, closing her eyes and then muttering, "I'm surrounded by a bunch of idiots."

Matthew went to help to set up for the speech, and then Alexis went looking for Eva, not finding her and going over to April.

"Where's Eva? I can't find her anywhere?" Alexis asked.

April shrugged, but looked a little worried.

"I have no idea where she is." April replied.

"The last time I saw her, she was with Peter." Clark said, walking back over to them.

"Peter? Peter's here?" April asked.

Clark nodded. "He was. I think they might have left."

Alexis quickly pulled out her cell phone and went over into a quiet corner and called Eva.

"Hello?" Eva asked.

"Eva. This is Alex." Alexis said.

"Oh, crap! I'll be right there!" Eva replied, hanging up on her.

"Well that was nice." Alexis said to herself.

She hurried over to April and sighed.

"What?" April asked.

"She'll be right here soon." Alexis replied.

April smiled. "At least she's alive."

"You didn't tell me that Rose was giving the speech." Clark said as Rose went on stage after a few more minutes passed.

"I didn't know." Alexis replied, smiling as she saw a flash go, turning to see Eva there.

"Sorry I'm late." Eva whispered.

Alexis smiled. "I'm just glad you're here. I want good photographs of…well Rose since she's the one speaking apparently."

Eva nodded. "Sure thing."

"Nice to see you, Peter." Alexis said.

Peter smiled. "Nice to be here on Rose's big day."

April nodded. "Her big day and we didn't even know about it. Sad, isn't it?"

"Well she never told us about it." Alexis protested.

April nodded again. "That's very true."

"I think she's about ready to go." Alexis said, getting out her notepad.

"You're still doing things the old fashioned way?" Clark asked, pulling out his tape recorder.

Alexis smirked. "I remember things better when I write them down."

Clark nodded. "Sure, but can you rewind it and listen to the intonation later?"

"Oh, Clark. Clark, Clark, Clark. Like I don't have a recorder too." Alexis answered, pointing to Matthew.

Clark smiled. "Keeping you on your toes."

"And I truly thank you for that." Alexis told him, smiling genuinely.

****

Eva watched as Rose tapped the microphone.

"Good Evening everyone." She said.

Everyone replied with little 'hi's' and 'hello's', and she smiled, having apparently cleaned herself up a bit.

"Welcome to the second unveiling this month from the Electronics branch of Wayne Enterprises." Rose said.

Everyone began to clap, and some cheered.

"Before I get someone from Electronics themselves to come up and explain the fundamentals of this new machine, I would like to take this time to get you more acquainted with the device. First, think about the sun. On good days, Gotham is beautiful. There are trees, wildlife, and even flowers. How do those animals and plants survive? Sunlight. Sunlight is used as a chemical energy that every living thing needs, and now we have a machine that further helps us to create the energy we need to live, and in turn, to grow. So without further ado, I give you Matthew Corpus from Electronics." Rose said, and started off the round of applause, getting off of the stage and going outside.

Eva wanted to follow her, but kept taking pictures. Matthew talked about how the machine actually converted the energy and then how it used that energy to stimulate plant growth, but Eva was more interested in taking the pictures and then getting out to see her favorite cousin.

"I think you'll all agree that having a machine that does the tedious work we don't actually want to do to keep plants alive is beneficial, huh?" Matthew asked.

Lots of people applauded, and then Matthew pulled Bruce up onstage and Bruce thanked everyone for coming and then looked off in the direction Rose had disappeared to since she hadn't come back and then turned to the microphone.

"Rose had to head on out already, but next time you see her, you should thank her for the wonderful time and planning she put into this occasion. She even set up all of the decorations herself and planned the catering." Bruce said. "As my new partner, she's done a lot for her company, and I thank her for it."

Everyone applauded even though Rose was gone, and then Bruce told them all to have a wonderful evening and went to talk to Clark again as Eva split and found Rose sitting down on a bench outside away from everyone, her head in her hands.

"Hey…" Eva said resting her hand on Rose's back as she cried.

"This night was supposed to be about the company. It was supposed to be about the machine." Rose muttered into her hands.

"It's okay, Rose." Eva replied.

"No, it's not. This night wasn't supposed to be about Bruce. Not at all. It was supposed to be purely business, and I turned it personal. Now look at me." Rose told her, looking up. "I look like a wreck."

"But a very cute one." Eva said, smiling a little.

Rose laughed a little. "Yeah…I'm hella cute with snot and tears running down my face."

Eva handed Rose a packet of pocket tissues and Rose blew her nose and wiped off her face, and then pulled out her compact.

"Yeah…a wreck." Rose said.

Eva was about to speak when Alexis showed up with her coat.

"You may want to come now if you want to make it home before the boys." Alexis told her.

"What do you mean?" Eva asked.

"I mean that April invited them over." Alexis replied.

"Oh." Rose said. "Don't worry, Eva, Peter's still welcome."

Eva smiled. "Thanks for that. I'll make him be super quiet while he's in the other guest room."

"That's right…Clark's still staying for another night." Rose replied.

****

April laughed at one of Clark's jokes as they walked in the house. The others had beaten them back already, but it was no big deal—they were just going to sit around and talk things out anyways.

"So who wants something to eat?" April asked.

"I already made mini sandwiches and there are chips and dip in bowls in the living room." Willoughby replied. "The mini bar is restocked too."

"I think we've had enough to drink, today." April said. "But we'll dip into the food soon."

Willoughby nodded. "Just keep it down…Rose is having a rough night."

"Is that who the tray's for?" Bruce asked.

Willoughby nodded. "She wanted ice cream, and I wouldn't let her have the whole carton."

"Do you mind…do you mind if _I_ take it up to her?" Bruce asked softly.

Willoughby sighed. "Actually Master Wayne, it's probably best you don't go up there. She really doesn't want to see you."

Bruce nodded. "Yeah…of course."

Willoughby went up the stairs to Rose's room, and then Bruce sat on the couch and set his head in his hands.

"When did this get complicated?" Bruce asked.

"When did what get complicated?" Clark asked.

"When did just thinking about Rose get complicated?" Bruce replied.

"When you realized that she was the light in your life." April said.

"Don't you mean the light _of_ his life?" Clark asked.

April shook her head. "No. This is Gotham…everything is dark."

Clark smiled at her lovingly, but April didn't notice. She sat down next to Bruce and set her hand on his back.

"I don't know what to do anymore. I mean I've always you know…dated around. It's what I do. Alfred calls me a billionaire playboy." Bruce said.

April smiled. "Well maybe it's time you stepped up, had some balls, and told her how you felt."

"But we work together." Bruce said. "How am I supposed to work when all I can do is think about her?"

"You could fire her." Clark suggested.

To that statement, April and Bruce both looked up at him and Clark shrank back a little.

"Just a suggestion." Clark said, going over to the mini bar.

"Bruce, if you really love someone, I mean even if you really like someone, you should tell them before it's too late. And trust me Bruce…it's not too late." April told him.

Bruce looked at her. "Are you sure?"

April nodded. "Absolutely. You can't stop being in love with someone in an evening. Yes, you were idiotic to not get visibly annoyed with Logan, but you can still make that up to her."

Bruce stood up. "You're right. I'll be back."

Bruce went up the stairs as Clark looked at her.

"Do you really believe that?" Clark asked.

"Believe what?" April asked.

"That if you really like someone, you should tell them?" Clark asked. "Even if you're pretty sure you'll be rejected?"

April raised an eyebrow. "Yes. I mean if you don't tell them even with the risk of being rejected, then you'll never know what _could_ have happened. Living with 'what if's' is kind of ridiculous, Clark. Why?"

Clark smiled awkwardly. "Nothing."


	11. Confessions and Confusion

Rose snuggled into her covers as Willoughby ran his fingers through her hair and she smiled a little.

"Thank you. I'm sorry I'm so ridiculous." Rose said.

Willoughby smiled. "You're not ridiculous, Rose. You're heart is broken, and so you're trying to cope. It's all right."

Rose nodded, and then Willoughby got up to go and get her more juice. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, sighing as someone knocked on the door.

"Go away." Rose said.

When the knocking continued, Rose got out of bed, straightened her nightgown, and then she opened the door to see Bruce standing there.

"Hi." He said after a pause.

Rose replied by shutting the door in his face, and then she planted her back against the door and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure she was ready to talk to Bruce, but at the same time, she wasn't sure she shouldn't let _him_ speak.

"Rose?" Bruce asked through the door.

Rose sighed. "Go away…Bruce."

Bruce sighed and walked away from the door as Rose took a deep breath and then went back to her bed. After a few minutes, she jumped at a knock on her window. Getting up, she went to it and sighed.

"What do _you_ want?" She asked.

Batman smiled. "I wanted to say I was sorry. I should have gone with you tonight."

Rose sighed. "It doesn't matter. Bruce doesn't want me anyways."

"Why would you say that?" Batman asked.

Rose shrugged. "Because Clark said that he fights for the things that he wants…and tonight when I was there with Logan, he didn't fight for me. Meet me on the roof?"

Batman nodded, and then Rose grabbed a robe and went into the hallway, over to the stairs, and went all the way to the roof, opening the door and stepping out into the cold night air, stopping in her tracks as she saw Bruce.

"What are you doing here?" She managed to ask.

"I knew you'd be here." He said.

"How?" She asked.

"Batman told me." Bruce replied.

Rose walked over to him slowly. "When did he tell you that?"

"Well, I kind of asked him to talk to you." Bruce said.

Rose just nodded and went over to the railing and leaned on it, looking down at the things below them.

"Why?" She asked softly.

Bruce came up to her, slowly touching his stomach to her back, and then he rested his hands on hers and she closed her eyes, a tear trickling out. Bruce brushed some hair off of her shoulder, and then nuzzled his nose against her ear.

"Because…I love you." He whispered.

Rose nodded a little, and turned around, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her head in his chest.

"I love you too." Rose whispered.

"I'm so sorry I didn't fight for you." Bruce said. "I should have."

"Who told you I wanted you to fight for me?" Rose asked.

Bruce paused a moment and then shrugged as she looked up at him.

"Batman told me." He replied.

****

Alexis paced around her room and thought out loud.

"I can't believe that they actually thought this jealousy thing worked." Alexis said. "I mean, really now."

She continually laughed a little, and then paced some more, and then she sighed and decided to go downstairs to grab something to drink. Alexis wandered down the stairs in her pajamas, and then her eyes widened when she saw Logan talking away to Clark as April listened intently to them.

"Seriously?" Clark asked Logan.

"Seriously. I mean the chick is completely psycho." Logan said.

"But I thought that you liked her." April told him.

Logan turned to her. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean she isn't psycho. I mean here she has a choice between me and Scott, and look who she picked—the guy who can't even look her in the eyes because it'll kill her."

April shrugged. "Maybe it's true love."

"Maybe she just doesn't like assholes." Alexis said.

Everyone turned to her and then she continued into the kitchen and got herself something to drink. When she came out, she looked over at the group again and then she gave them a 'what' look.

"I like the look." Logan said.

"Oh shut up." Alexis told him.

"What? I think plaid is in." Logan replied.

"Where's Bruce?" Alexis asked.

"He went to talk to Rose." April said.

"And you let him?" Alexis asked.

"Well he hasn't come down hurt or in pain, so um…I guess we did fine." Clark answered.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, I guess him not being bruised is good. Maybe they made up."

"Maybe." Logan said. "That, or they were so angry they had a moment of lust and now they're talking over how to make it like it never happened."

Alexis glared at him. "Grow up."

With that, she went up the stairs and then she closed her door behind her and paced some more.

"He is such a vulgar human being." Alexis said, and then she stopped and thought about that. "He isn't even a human being. He's a mutant."

When she said that, Alexis sighed and shook her head.

"I can't say that…I like mutants. In a twisted way, Wolverine is cool. He's got retractable claws and regeneration properties. Sure, he's probably a masochist, but he's got such gentle eyes sometimes…" Alexis told herself, smiling a little.

She stopped though, her eyes widening as she dropped her glass of water on her carpet and put her hand up to her mouth. She had feelings for Logan. She was falling for the man she had always thought to be a complete and utter asshole.

"This can't be happening to me." She said out loud. "Logan?"

And in the moment when she realized that she had said his actual name, she closed her eyes and swore.

****

Eva smiled at Peter as he held her on the couch in the den. She snuggled into him as they watched "Gone With the Wind", and he kissed the top of her head.

"I don't want you to go back to New York tomorrow." Eva told him.

Peter smiled. "I don't want to leave you either."

"So what are we going to do about this?" Eva asked. "I mean, I live here in Gotham, and you live in New York. This is going to be hard, Peter."

"Unless…Unless you come and live with me." Peter said, softly.

Eva paused a moment and turned to look at him.

"Peter, we haven't been together that long and you're asking me to come and live with you?" Eva asked.

"Eva, we've known each other for years. But if it's uncomfortable for you…" Peter was saying.

Eva put her fingers to his lips. "No, no…I just think that maybe we should hold off on that. If we're still happily in love come Christmas, when I come to visit, I'll move down there with you."

Peter smiled. "I can live with that."

Eva smiled too, and then she kissed him. At first it was going to be a short kiss, but Peter returned it with such love and care, that it lengthened between the two of them. He wrapped his arms around her, making her feel completely secure in his embrace, and as the kissing continued, someone walked into the room, and the two pulled away slowly, not ashamed that anyone saw them this way.

"I—Well—I—I was going to—" Clark stuttered, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose with his finger.

"It's okay Clark. Were you looking for the refills to the mini bar?" Eva asked, getting up to get them for him.

"Actually—well—Willoughby sent me—I need another tray." Clark said.

Eva nodded, and then reached up into a cupboard to pull out the extra trays, handing one to him.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

Clark just nodded, but it was obvious he was nervous about the situation.

"Yeah—I'm—April might need me." Clark replied.

Eva nodded and smiled a bit as he left the room, and then she turned to Peter who laughed.

"That was the most entertaining part of my day." Peter said.

Eva nodded and sat down next to him, snuggling into him again.

"That was pretty darned fun." Eva replied.

"So what do you think he's thinking?" Peter asked, holding her to him.

Eva shrugged. "He's probably just embarrassed that he intruded."

"What do you think he's going to tell your sister?" Peter asked slowly, trying hard not to ruin what could turn into another moment.

Eva looked up at him and smiled. "I really don't care."

Peter smiled back, and Eva brushed some hair out of his face.

"So where were we?" Peter asked.

Eva beamed. "Right about here."

She kissed him softly, and then they lay there on the couch kissing for a good long while.

****

April bustled about a bit the next morning trying to get things ready so she could go straight to work after taking Clark to the airport without worrying about leaving too much work for Willoughby to do. She hadn't seen anyone else this particular morning, and didn't remember seeing Bruce actually leave the night before.

"Good morning." Clark said awkwardly.

April smiled. "Morning. Is something wrong?"

Clark shook his head and fiddled with his glasses, trying to clean them off with fidgety hands. April took his glasses from him and she smiled at him, not catching the blush that rose in his cheeks as she cleaned off the glasses for him and handed them back.

"So what has you flustered, Clark?" April asked.

Clark shrugged. "Just—I—well you see—" He said as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose again. "—Eva and Peter…I saw them last night."

"And?" April asked, getting some coffee from the coffee pot and pouring them each a mug.

"Well…they were…on the couch." Clark said.

April sighed. "Cut to the chase, Clark."

"They were making out and I walked in on them for another tray." Clark said hurriedly in one voice.

April laughed. "Oh, Clark. Making out is a completely normal thing—Eva and Peter?"

When April's voice changed to that of concern rather than amusement, Clark just nodded shyly, and quickly took a sip of coffee.

"What the freaking—EVA!" April screamed.

"Pipe down, you loon!" Alexis called from her room, slamming the bedroom door hard to signal that she was going back to bed.

"How are we supposed to sleep with all this racket? I was warm and snuggled." Rose protested, shutting her door loudly too.

"EVA!" April cried again as she made it to the bottom of the stairs.

When Alexis's door opened again, April moved to avoid being hit by a large hardback dictionary, and Alexis slammed her door again.

"What?" Eva asked groggily, coming to the top of the stairs in her nightgown.

"What were you thinking making out with a boy by yourself in the den?" April asked.

Eva sighed. "Look, April, it's my life, I can take care of myself, and I don't need your permission to make out with my boyfriend."

"Eva…" April said in a warning tone.

"You're just jealous you don't have a boyfriend!" Eva told her.

April's eyes widened, but before she could retort, Alexis came out of her room with a hardback book and smacked Eva in the butt with it, walking down the stairs and looking April in the eye.

"What?!?" April asked angrily.

Alexis hit her in the back of the head with a book and April's jaw dropped.

"Alexis!" She said angrily.

"No! Don't you, 'Alexis' me! It's 5:30 in the freaking morning!" Alexis said, and then she stomped up the stairs to her room and slammed the door again.

To the door slam, Rose opened her door again and sighed before opening her mouth.

"SHUT-UP!" She cried, and then she shut her door as Eva and April stood on the stairs glaring at each other and Clark fidgeted a bit, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose as he looked from April, to Eva, and then back to April.


	12. Cuddling and Parting

Rose crawled back into bed and snuggled into Bruce. She was happy he had stayed, and they had stayed up late talking.

"Sorry about them." Rose told him.

Bruce smiled and shook his head. "It's all right."

"We're not really…a morning family." Rose said.

Bruce chuckled a little, and then they snuggled a bit more and he smirked.

"You know, it's funny that Batman was our messenger." Bruce told her.

Rose smiled. "Yeah. I mean, who knew he cared?"

"He owed me a favor." Bruce said.

"How is that?" Rose asked, looking at him and resting her hand on his chest.

"Well I helped him with a technical difficulty on the Batmobile." Bruce said slowly.

Rose nodded. "That was thoughtful of you. So you just called in a favor for me?"

Bruce kissed her forehead. "Of course I did. I didn't want it to be too late for us."

Rose laughed. "It would never be too late for us. Unless you had actually dated Monica."

"I wouldn't have. Now you know…the company is going to wonder." Bruce said.

"Unless we just don't tell them." Rose suggested.

Bruce shook his head. "I don't want to take anyone but you to these galas, Rose. We have to tell them about it. It would be wrong if we didn't."

"But what about the fact that we're partners? I mean, how is that going to look if we actually date? It'll look like you favor me above everyone else." Rose explained. "It doesn't matter how professional you are about it."

"Well…then…you're fired." Bruce said.

Rose sat up suddenly and looked at him.

"I'm what?!?" She asked in a soft, angry tone.

"I was just kidding." Bruce said, too afraid to make her mad.

"You better have been." Rose told him. "Otherwise…I'd have to break up with you and toss you out my window. And I'm serious about tossing you out the window. That's not just for a scare effect, Bruce."

Bruce nodded. "Just come back, please?"

Rose gave him a look, and then she slowly lay back down and rested her head on his chest.

"I swear, Bruce, you actually fire me because of this dating arrangement and I'll hurt you." Rose said.

Bruce nodded and kissed her head. "I understand. Why would I fire such an important asset to my company anyways?"

Rose smiled. "I'm important?"

Bruce nodded and leaned in. "Of course you are."

"Guys…don't you have to work?" April asked, opening the door.

Rose sighed because they were about to have their first kiss together, and she turned to April.

"Don't you have to take Clark to the airport?" Rose asked.

April smiled. "Yeah."

"I'll see you at dinner then, April." Rose told her as Bruce got up and went out the bedroom door.

"I can't believe you two haven't actually done anything." April said.

"Please, April. I do have _some_ class." Rose protested.

****

Alexis picked up a book and slammed it down on her bed to take out her frustration of having to be woken up early against her will.

"What the Hell is April's problem?" Alexis asked herself.

To make herself feel better, she turned on the water in her bathroom and tested it until it was the right temperature, and then she put a plug in the bathtub and let the water run as she went downstairs.

"I thought you could use some." Willoughby told her, handing her some Dr. Pepper.

Alexis smiled. "You're the best, Willoughby."

She took the Dr. Pepper from him, hugging him, and then she grabbed an apple and some scented candles, and went back upstairs. Pouring some lavender bubble bath into the water, she mixed it around and then lit some candles before stripping down and smiling happily as she submerged herself in the water.

Leaning back, she began to hum 'All I Can Do' for a while, waving her hands around a bit as she sang along to it. A smile appeared on her face before her eyes shot opened and she realized who the song reminded her of—Logan.

"Ewww!" She exclaimed. "New song! New song!"

Unfortunately, she couldn't get the song out of her head. She sighed, and then just hummed the song because she kept telling herself that it had nothing to do with Logan. Absolutely nothing. Logan was a scumbag. Why would a song this good have anything to do with a scumbag?

When she got out of the bathtub she got dressed and then she smiled a bit as she styled her red hair and then did her make-up. She sighed a little as her phone rang since it was supposed to be her day off, but answered the phone anyways.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Hi. It's Logan." Logan told her.

Alexis sighed. "Why the Hell do you keep calling me?"

"I just don't see why we can't be friends." Logan admitted.

"I don't know. I don't associate with jerks." Alexis told him. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah? Why are you such a bitch?" Logan asked.

Alexis smirked. "I dunno. Why are you?"

Before Logan could retort, she hung up on him and then she set the phone on the bed as she grabbed shoes out of the closet. She went downstairs and ate some breakfast that Willoughby had prepared, and spent the rest of the morning reading in her room, sighing again as her phone rang around one.

"Hello?" Alexis asked absent-mindedly, really absorbed in her chapter.

"Hey, Alex! I—I was so absent-minded today that I forgot coffee." Rose said.

"Yeah?" Alexis asked her.

"Well, Bruce has decided that I can't just go get myself coffee. It'll look like he's _favoring_ me." Rose sighed.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Wait thirty more minutes and I'll bring you coffee."

"But Alex…I need it now." Rose pleaded.

Alexis sighed and put a bookmark in her book.

"Fine. But you had better appreciate me." Alexis replied.

"Absolutely!" Rose cried. "I'll make extra potatoes just for you for Thanksgiving in a couple days!"

"Yeah. You'd better." Alexis told her.

****

Eva hugged Peter tightly as they waited once again to put him on the plane. They had been standing there holding onto each other for a good long while, and then he sighed.

"I can't believe I have to leave you again." Peter whispered.

"But remember my offer." Eva told him, pulling away.

Peter smiled and kissed her softly.

"I'll remember. I promise." Peter said.

Eva kissed him again, putting her hands in his back pockets and then pulling away a little.

"I'll see you in a couple days for Thanksgiving." Eva said.

Peter smiled and nodded. "You will indeed."

Peter kissed her one last time before getting on the plane, and then Eva went to find April and Clark, who were talking animatedly about Metropolis.

"I mean it has to be incredibly fantastic right now!" April said. "So many stories to be had!"

Clark smiled. "It's okay."

Eva found them, to be honest, boring. So she decided to go ahead and get herself some coffee. As she wandered around the large airport, she was looking for a coffee shop. When she only found a little coffee stand, she decided that it would have to do.

"Go back and listen to the old fogies, or go to the car and blast the stereo?" Eva asked herself.

Smiling, she chose the last option, and hurried to her sister, reaching into her pocket and taking the keys.

"Hey!" April said.

Eva shrugged. "What? They're just keys."

"Don't you dare hurt my car." April told her sternly.

"Chill out, April." Eva said, hurrying to the car.

When she got there, she locked herself in, putting the key in the ignition and turning it to accessories. She turned the radio up and started to listen to John Mayer. She swayed and sang along to it, smiling as she thought about Peter, and about Thanksgiving coming up, and about Bruce and Rose finally deciding that stupid didn't become them.

As the John Mayer song died down, Eva listened as the announcer came on and said something about being back after this commercial break. Normally Eva didn't listen to commercials, but she had decided that she was too lazy to switch the station. When the music came back, M2M came on singing 'Don't Say You Love Me'.

"Don't say you love me. You don't even know me. If you really want me, then give me some time. Don't go there, baby, not before I'm ready. Don't say your heart's saying to hurry. It's not like we're gonna get married. Give me, give me, some time." Eva sang.

She swayed even more as the song continued on, and then she smiled as she realized that even though she and Peter were moving kind of fast, they were in a good place. She liked where they were, even though it was scaring her a bit that she had said she would move in with him come Christmas.

"That could be ridiculous." Eva said out loud.

She rested her head on the window of the car, sighing, and singing a bit as she waited for April to show up.

****

April smiled and fixed Clark's tie.

"I think you're all good to go now." April said.

Clark smiled. "Thanks. I'm going to miss you in Metropolis."

"I'm going to miss you too, Clark." April admitted. "These past few days have been a lot of fun. And now you get to go back to Metropolis."

"That's true." Clark said. "I miss Metropolis."

"With all good reason. God, I miss Superman." April said dreamily.

Clark fixed his glasses. "Yeah. Superman's…neat."

"Neat? _Neat_?!?" April asked. "He's freaking _fantastic_!"

Clark nodded. "Yeah. Fantastic."

"Clark, how can you even sound like he isn't amazing? The man can fly. He's impervious to bullets. He fights crime. He looks so good in that suit…" April said, closing her eyes happily.

Clark just cleared his throat as April licked her lips and April was pulled out of her dream world for a moment.

"How come you aren't excited about him? I mean you get exclusives with him. I would kill to get exclusives with him." April said, and then after a pause she added, "Literally."

Clark shrugged. "He's just a normal person."

"Normal? The man has super powers." April said. "Freaking cool super powers. Like X-ray vision. Do you think he ever does anything dirty with that power?"

Clark coughed and blushed. "Absolutely not."

"Clark…is this conversation making you uncomfortable?" April asked.

Clark shrugged. "Not for the reasons you're thinking."

April smirked. "Are you sure?"

Clark nodded. "I'm not uncomfortable because you think Superman X-rays women's clothing."

April laughed. "Oh come on. You're telling me that if you were a man and you had that power, you wouldn't peek every once in a while?"

"I must definitely wouldn't!" Clark protested, going another shade of red.

April smiled. "Well then you're pretty…good."

Clark looked at her. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Absolutely not. I just—I was expecting you to have some other facet to your personality is all. You're just so sweet and caring, but I thought maybe you might have a bad side like Bruce does. Or maybe you're just one of the only actual sweet guys left." April said, pondering it.

"Maybe." Clark replied.

"Is there something on your mind?" April asked as they stood in awkward silence.

"Remember what you were saying to Bruce about telling people how you feel?" Clark asked.

April nodded. "Yeah…why?"

Clark took a deep breath and closed his eyes before opening them again to April's waiting face.

"I like you, April—as more than just a friend. I enjoy spending time with you. I love your smile and your laugh. I adore you." Clark told her, and then he walked off, afraid to see the shock on her face any longer.

"He didn't even let me respond." April said, and though Clark heard her, he kept walking until she turned to go and find Eva, not watching him take off at super speed.

When she turned to stop him and talk to him about it more, her heart sank because he was gone.


	13. Beautiful Disasters

Rose smiled as Willoughby helped her to make a beautiful Thanksgiving meal. She was the only one setting foot into the kitchen, even though Alexis had promised to come in a little later and start making a meringue pie. Rose wiped a little sweat from her brow with the back of her hand after closing the oven on the turkey again, and then she washed her hands again, going out and smiling as Eva set the table.

"We're going to have a full house." Eva said happily, smiling as Peter put the utensils out.

"We are indeed. Make sure you set an extra place for Clark. He decided to come last minute." Rose told her.

"Really?" Eva asked, looking up.

Rose nodded. "He reconsidered my offer. Plus, Bruce is coming over soon with Alfred, and Logan is coming since I invited him—but Alex doesn't know that yet, so don't let it slip, okay?"

Eva sighed but nodded. "Yeah, sure."

Rose smiled and then went back into the kitchen, checking on her cranberry sauce, and smiling because the turkey was almost done. It might not actually be a traditional Thanksgiving with a lot of sitting around the table, but there would be a lot of people at the house any minute.

"I'll get it!" Eva called as the doorbell rang.

Rose checked on the rolls, and then she smiled as arms wrapped around her waist.

"We come bearing pies and ice cream." Bruce said.

"Well I guess Alex is off the hook then." Rose told him.

Bruce chuckled. "Is that so?"

Rose nodded and turned to him. "She was going to make pies, but you brought some."

"Did someone say pie?" Alexis asked.

Rose smiled. "You don't have to make pies anymore, Alex. Alfred was kind enough to bring them."

Alexis smirked. "Yeah, I called him and asked him to make them."

"What?" Rose asked softly.

Alexis nodded and popped a green grape into her mouth after picking it off of the stem in the bowl in the center of the counter.

"Yeah. I didn't really want to make them." Alexis explained.

Bruce kissed Rose's head softly as she took it all in and the kitchen was silent.

"I'm going to check on the rolls." Rose finally said.

"Why don't you let us do that?" Alfred asked, motioning to Willoughby who nodded.

"You've done enough for one day." Willoughby told her.

"Besides…Master Bruce has something he'd like to show you." Alfred said.

Rose smiled at Bruce, who smiled back and motioned his hand outside, shooting Alfred an, 'I could have gotten there by myself' look before following her.

"I adore you." Rose told Bruce as they stepped out in the back yard.

"Not as much as I adore you." Bruce said. "Now, how long have we known each other?"

"Years. Four I believe. That's when I started the Internship at Wayne Enterprises." Rose told him.

"And how long have you loved me?" Bruce asked.

"I'll let you know when I get there." Rose teased.

Bruce smiled. "Seriously, Rose."

Rose smiled. "A really long time. Since the day you knocked all of my things out of my hands and we hit heads trying to pick it up."

"When our hands brushed across each others ever so gently?" Bruce asked.

Rose nodded. "I'm surprised you remember considering the women you've had since then that weren't me." Rose told him.

Bruce smiled. "Forgive me?"

Rose pondered it playfully. "Yeah. I guess I can find it in my heart to forgive you."

"All right. Well in that case…will you marry me?" Bruce asked.

****

Alexis popped a few more grapes into her mouth before she picked up her book from the table and sat in the armchair in the living room. Before she was too settled, the doorbell rang and she got up, sighing and opening the door. When she saw Logan, however, she shut the door in his face.

"Where is Rose?" Alexis asked angrily as Eva walked by holding Peter's hand.

Eva shrugged. "Bruce had a surprise for her out back."

Alexis nodded. "Right, because she gets to enjoy _her_ surprise."

"What are you talking about?" Eva asked as the doorbell rang again.

As Alexis left the room to find Bruce and Rose, her mood changed from content to extremely angry.

"It's like he's deliberately everywhere I go!" Alexis cried, breaking up Rose and Bruce from a fond embrace.

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked.

"Not what…_who_." Alexis said.

Rose pondered that for a moment before she smiled awkwardly.

"Oh…right…Logan." Rose replied.

"YOU'RE RIGHT, LOGAN! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" Alexis roared and then cut her off as she opened her mouth. "YOU _WEREN'T_ THINKING! THAT'S THE CORRECT ANSWER!"

She stormed off as Bruce and Rose looked quite dazed, and in her huff, ran right into Logan.

"Sorry." Logan said.

"Oh, I don't want to hear any of your bull!" Alexis told him.

Logan growled. "I don't understand how all of your family members have such superb genes, and here you are—the angry bitch."

Alexis slugged him, and they both heard a crack as her knuckles made contact with his jaw. Logan was surprised that it hurt, but he was more worried about her knuckles as she shook her hand out.

"Let me help." Logan offered, taking her hand.

Alexis pulled it away. "No. I can take care of it myself."

"Stop being such an idiot!" Logan cried.

"Not until you stop being such a jerk!" Alexis retorted.

"You're ridiculous!"

"You're insensitive!"

"You think you know everything!"

"You know nothing!"

"You drive me wild!"

"You make me want to scream!"

"I want to kiss you!"

"Then what the Hell are you waiting for?!?"

Logan pulled her to him, and kissed her, and she returned it, feeling a lot calmer than she had been in a long while. Her rage subsided, and she smiled a little as they pulled away and he stroked her hair.

"I should put ice on this." Alexis said.

Logan nodded. "You really should."

"You could come with me…Logan." Alexis told him.

At the sound of his name, Logan smiled, and followed her into the kitchen.

****

Eva smiled at Peter as they sat on the couch in the living room. She was very happy that he was finally there with her for Thanksgiving, and snuggled into him.

"Why are you so snuggly today?" Peter asked happily.

"No reason." Eva answered. "I'm just happy."

"I wonder what the fuss was all about with Alex and Logan a couple minutes ago." Peter said.

Eva shrugged. "Rose probably broke them up or something."

Peter nodded. "I bet she did. Where are she and Bruce anyways?"

"Last I saw he wanted to show her something." Eva told him.

Peter sighed. "They're almost perfect together."

Eva smiled. "Almost."

"So…I was thinking that maybe when you come in December, that we could look at apartments." Peter said.

Eva looked up at him. "Peter…do you think that we're moving too fast?"

Peter shook his head. "Not at all. We've known each other for years, Eva. I think we're okay. Do _you_ think we're moving too fast?"

Eva shrugged. "I just think that all of these pieces of our relationship are suddenly trying to fit together. It's almost like no thought is going into it anymore, its just happening."

Peter sighed and stood up, pacing a little.

"I'm sorry, Eva. I shouldn't be pushing you this hard." He said.

Eva stood up and rested her hands on his arms.

"No, no. It's okay, Peter. I just—I think that I'm just a little scared about Christmas." She admitted.

Peter held her to him. "I know. I am too."

"I wouldn't have thought." Eva told him.

Peter smiled. "I'm scared that we're so close, Eva. I don't want us to break or anything—I love you too much. I couldn't bear to lose you."

Eva looked up and smiled. "You mean the world to me, Peter. Don't ever doubt that."

Peter kissed her softly. "I won't…ever."

They turned to the door as knuckles rapped on it and then Eva frowned a little at April's astonished face.

"Clark's here." April said.

"And?" Eva asked, happy she wasn't jumping off the hook about her and Peter holding onto one another.

"And…well…he's here." April replied.

"What's going on with you two?" Eva asked.

"I'll be back." Peter said, excusing himself from the room for a bit.

April sighed and sat on the couch. "We—at the airport…he told me he liked me."

Eva's eyes widened and then she nodded and smiled.

"I was wondering when he'd tell you. So what's so bad about that? Did you…did you let him down easy at least?" Eva asked, hoping she hadn't crushed Clark or anything.

April put her head in hands. "It's not even that, Eva. He—He didn't give me a chance to say anything to him."

Eva nodded. "Then now's the time to talk to him."

****

April lay on the couch after Eva left and thought about everything. Why _not_ talk to him? Why not just tell him that she was flattered? That she loved spending time with him? That she was pretty sure she was developing a crush on him—that she _had_ developed a crush on him? Sighing, April got up and then she hurried out of the room, running into a very annoyed Rose.

"What's wrong?" April asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Rose admitted.

"Are you sure?" April asked her, knowing that sometimes Rose needed to let it all out in a way that wasn't ice cream, loud music and Batman.

"Rose!" Bruce called.

"I'm sure." Rose replied, hurrying into her room and slamming the door behind her.

Bruce came bounding up the stairs, but April stopped him as he went towards her room.

"You should let her cool down. If you're going to start a relationship with her, then you need to know that when she's angry enough to slam doors she just needs a few minutes. Now if she had ice cream—" April was saying before Rose appeared and hurried down the stairs, returning with ice cream and then slamming her door behind her. "I'd give her a week tops." April told him. "What did you do?"

Bruce sighed. "I didn't think it was a bad thing. I just—I guess I didn't think it through."

April nodded. "Well whatever you did, just explain to her that you're a man, you were wrong, and you want to be forgiven."

Bruce crossed his arms over his chest and then tried again to get to Rose's door, but April again held him back.

"Really, Bruce. Give her some space. Barging in like you think you can fix everything is only going to make her even angrier with you." April said calmly.

Bruce nodded and went down the stairs, April sighing as she decided to brave going down for dinner as well. Rose would show up. She wouldn't skip Thanksgiving dinner just because she and Bruce had a spat. Maybe if she were sneaky enough, she wouldn't have to deal with Clark just yet. Maybe.

But April wasn't very sneaky. When she made her way into the kitchen, she ran right into Clark, and he looked at her slightly startled, and April blushed. She wasn't quite sure what to say, but when he tried to walk past her, she stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Wait." She told him.

The tone in her voice gave Clark a ray of hope, and he shushed her, taking her out to the patio, and she smiled a bit.

"What is this?" April asked.

"I have to tell you something before we go on with this. I've never felt this way about anyone before and I need you to know the truth about me." Clark told her, pushing the glasses up on the bridge of his nose yet again.

"Yeah?" April asked him.

"I'm…April…I'm Superman." Clark said.

April was stunned for a moment, but then she burst out laughing. Clark sighed and then took off his glasses, making April stop for a moment.

"Um…Well…so you _look_ like Superman, Clark…prove it." April told him slowly.

"You're wearing polka-dotted underwear." Clark replied.

Without hesitation, April slapped him and Clark sighed.

"You told me to prove it." Clark protested.

"You could have melted something with your laser vision or plain ripped open your shirt and showed me your suit, you didn't have to X-Ray my clothes!" April said. "And now I know you _do_ use that power to fulfill your little…thoughts."

Clark blushed. "Sorry."

April waved it off. "Its not bad, Clark, I just—I've been in love with Superman for so long and here you are, in front of me—as Clark Kent. And surprisingly, I'm happier with Clark Kent."

Clark smiled and leaned in a little kissing her softly and when they pulled away, April smiled a little.

"You're not off the hook for the clothing thing, by the way." She said.


	14. Lies and Secrets

A couple weeks later, Rose was still giving Bruce the silent treatment when not at work. She didn't want to see him outside of work. Didn't want him near her house. Didn't want to talk to him on the phone. When Alexis had asked if they were still an item, Rose said that they were just in an argument, but still in a relationship. She had told Alexis, Eva and April about how he had asked her to marry him for the sake of the company. Three days, and he had to compromise everything to say that it would look less conspicuous if they got married and co-owned the company.

"Stupid, stupid, man." Rose said.

She'd been spending many of her nights on the roof talking to Batman when he could spare a moment, and this was one of those nights. Rose was lying on her back in her pajamas, under a blanket and sighing as she looked up at the sky.

"So you don't always have to go around busting people for bad things?" Rose asked.

Batman shook his head. "Of course not. Sometimes I actually get to spend a nice quiet evening at home."

"Where do you live?" Rose asked, turning to look at him sitting down near her.

Batman smiled. "Wherever my journey takes me."

Rose laughed. "Bull. You live in some nice house and you have a nice job and a nice girlfriend and you only dress up as a bat because somehow they're significant in your life and strike fear in those that strike fear in others."

Batman looked at her with admiration in his eyes.

"Well you seem to think you have it all figured out." Batman said slowly.

Rose smiled and sat up, turning to him.

"I'd like to think that I do." She replied.

She got up and went over to him, and he stood up and smiled down at her.

"So what makes you call me every night with this silly signal of yours?" Batman asked, gulping a little, trying to hide a blush.

"I like talking to you. You're good company, you're attractive, you have this black, rubber suit…" She said, resting her hands on it. "I bet you can't even feel my hands through it though."

Batman shook his head slowly. "Not at all."

Rose took her hands away and sighed.

"Sorry. I shouldn't be flirting with you when I'm dating Bruce. Well…I _was_ dating Bruce, anyways." Rose told him.

"What makes you think you aren't still?" Batman asked cautiously.

Rose shrugged. "I haven't wanted to talk to him since he fucked up."

"What did he do?" Batman asked.

"He asked me to marry him." Rose admitted, turning her back to him.

"And…what's bad about that?" Batman asked slowly.

Rose sighed and turned to him. "It wasn't for us. It was for the _company_. That isn't romantic at all. It's idiotic. Besides, even if it _was_ for us, I wouldn't have accepted then either—friends or no for four years, we've been dating for two weeks and three days—and had only been dating three days when he proposed the question. He was being a moron."

Batman nodded slowly. "I can see that. He shouldn't push something he loves so much, away."

Rose smiled a little and rested her hand on his cheek.

"Thank you." She told him, kissing him swiftly. "That was a thank you and nothing more, Handsome."

****

Alexis had been happily hiding her relationship with Logan from the rest of her family, and smiled at him across the café table.

"So how was your day?" She asked him.

Logan kissed her hands as he held them on top of the table.

"Pretty good. I can honestly say that today is a good day." Logan replied.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "All right, mushy is not really your strong suit."

Logan chuckled. "Really now, Alex?"

Alexis nodded. "Yeah. You're much better at strong romantic and lustful. Sorry, but it's true."

Logan smiled. "It's all right, I believe you."

Alexis sighed as her phone rang, and Logan sighed too as she let go of his hands and leaned back in his chair.

"Hello?" Alexis asked.

"Hey, it's Eva. I just wanted to know if you were going to be home for lunch tomorrow, cause Rose says she has something important to tell us before April gets back from Metropolis." Eva said. "And I was wondering if you could come and help me look through the latest photos I've taken."

Alexis sighed to herself. "Yeah…I can be home soon."

Logan sighed a bit and drank his coffee gruffly as Eva kept talking.

"So where are you anyways?" Eva asked.

Alexis shrugged. "Out."

"Out? Why have you been so secretive lately?" Eva asked.

"I'm not being secretive, Eva." Alexis replied. "I'm just not doing anything in particular."

"Of course you're not." Logan said out loud.

"Who was that?" Eva asked.

"Oh, just some guy at the next table." She replied, giving Logan a stern look.

He just shrugged it off as Alexis hung up on Eva and then sighed, grabbing her things.

"Another dash off?" Logan asked.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, and I really am sorry about it. I hate doing this to you."

"Then tell them." Logan told her.

Alexis laughed. "Not yet, Logan…not yet. That would be too weird for them right now, especially since all of a sudden we're all hooking up with other people."

"I have yet to be hooked up with." Logan said.

Alexis smiled. "See? There's that vulgar side of you. You can't possibly lose it, can you?"

Logan got up as she got up and came over to her side of the table, taking her hands in his.

"Just promise me we'll have lunch tomorrow." Logan said.

Alexis frowned. "Rose needs me for lunch. Dinner?"

Logan nodded. "Sure. Dinner."

Alexis kissed him, and he smiled into it, happy he at least got this.

"I will see you tomorrow." Alexis told him.

"I'll call you tonight." Logan promised.

****

Eva plopped down on the couch and sighed as she turned on the television. It had been two weeks since Peter had gone back to New York yet again, and she wished that she hadn't been away from him this long. Especially now that she had to endure listening to Rose and Batman talk a lot at night sometimes. Granted, she normally intentionally listened to them, but lately they'd been a lot more sweet and caring. She was afraid Rose was falling in love with Batman and out of love with Bruce lately.

Wanting to know what was going on, Eva went upstairs and climbed out her window, climbing up the tree and sitting on a top branch, listening to Batman and Rose laugh with each other. She smiled since she knew that Rose needed this since Bruce asked her to marry him, but at the same time, she didn't know what to make of it all.

"So that constellation is which one?" Rose asked, trying to act like she knew nothing about stars.

"That's the Big Dipper." Batman replied, smiling because he knew she knew which one it was.

Rose nodded. "I see. So how come there's no medium dipper?"

Batman smiled. "Because there were no stars that wanted to make it."

Rose giggled. "Oh…I see."

Batman nodded and leaned his head on hers, feeling like he was happy she felt the friendship between them, but also sad she wasn't finding that friendship with Bruce.

"What's on your mind?" Batman asked as she got quiet.

"I'm just thinking." She replied.

"About Bruce?" Batman asked.

Rose nodded. "Yeah. I should…I need to go and talk to him."

Batman got up and then Eva hurried into her window, knowing that one of them would find her if they parted. She was almost in the window without anyone noticing except that her phone rang in her pocket and her ring tone startled Rose and Batman, but neither of them made a move towards the noise.

"Hello?" Eva answered as she got in the window, falling on the floor as she tripped over the windowsill.

"Hey." Came a female voice she recognized.

"What's new Mary Jane?" Eva asked, not so happy it was Mary Jane calling her from New York and not Peter.

"Well, I thought I'd just call and say 'hi'." Mary Jane said.

"Oh…hi?" Eva asked.

"So what have you been up to in Gotham?" Mary Jane asked, but it was obvious even by her voice that she was completely uninterested.

"Well I've been taking pictures a lot." Eva said. "You?"

"Oh I've been hanging out with Peter." Mary Jane told her like it was nothing at all.

Eva frowned. "Sounds like a lot of fun. Sounds busy where you are. What's going on?" Eva asked.

Before Mary Jane answered, Eva heard Peter tell her that Aunt May was now stable, but he was going to stay there with her and then Eva knew exactly where they were—a hospital.

"I need to go." Mary Jane told her.

"I bet you do." Eva said angrily, hanging up on her and grabbing things to leave.

****

April sat down on a bench in a Metropolis park and smiled. She was so happy to be back in Metropolis, and now that she and Clark were dating, it was easier to come up with excuses to show up and just be there. Plus, she loved that her boyfriend happened to be Superman as well, and the thought made her uber happy.

"And how are you doing this fine evening?" Clark asked April, showing up behind her.

April smiled and turned to face him. "Fabulous. I don't miss Gotham all that much if I ignore the fact that my family's there."

Clark chuckled. "Better news atmosphere here?"

April shrugged. "Mostly."

"In Gotham there are more stories." Clark said.

April smiled. "Perhaps, but none of them are actually as nice as you'd think. It's a city of crime. It's dark. It's boring."

Clark laughed and then sat down on the bench with her.

"I thought I would take you to work with me today. Lois has heard a lot about you and so has Jimmy." Clark said.

April beamed. "You were bragging about me already?"

Clark nodded and stroked her hair. "I've been bragging about you since before we made this new arrangement."

April blushed. "Let's go to the Daily Planet then."

Clark smiled and took April by the hand, leading her all the way to the Daily Planet. April really loved the atmosphere of the newspaper, and smiled because she understood why Alexis loved this environment so much. Sure the newsroom was very similar, but the bustle was unmistakably what she missed most about Metropolis. She liked the big cities.

"This must be, April!" Lois said, coming over to April and embracing her.

April awkwardly hugged her back. "Well hello there…Lois?"

Lois pulled away and nodded. "Yep, that's me."

"Clark! I'd like to see you in my office!" Perry White called.

"I'll be right back." Clark told April.

April nodded and then Lois led April over to her desk, and April was slightly surprised to see all of the Superman memorabilia. Lois kind of reminded April of herself in the respect that they were both pretty obsessed with Superman—except that now that April knew that Superman was Clark, she was slightly less clingy or passionate about it—at least in the way she was before.

"Wow." April said, looking at the walls of the cubicle around the desk.

Lois looked at her and smiled. "You like?"

April nodded. "It's nice."

"Superman is absolutely perfect." Lois said dreamily.

April shrugged. "He's okay."

Just saying that made April smile because she had thought he was fantastic once. She still did, but she knew him so much better now.

"He's more than okay. He's so…super." Lois said, at a loss for words.

April sighed. "Well don't get too psyched over him. A man like that can only also have a heart of steel."

Lois turned to her and smiled. "You obviously haven't been here long enough to know Superman."

April shrugged. "I guess not."


	15. Discoveries and Decisions

Rose hurried into the house and grabbed her car keys, ignoring the fact that she was in her pajamas. She drove to Bruce's house and parked, slowly going up to the door. She knocked, smiling at Alfred as he answered the door.

"Master Rose. What a surprise. Are you quite all right?" Alfred asked.

Rose smiled. "I'll be better once I talk to Bruce."

Alfred smiled too. "I'm glad you're finally talking to him again. Master Bruce has been moping around a bit."

Rose stopped smiling. "That's not what I had hoped."

Alfred ushered her in and then pointed up the stairs.

"He should be in his room." Alfred said.

Rose nodded and hurried up the stairs, knocking on Bruce's door. When the door opened, she looked at him and cocked her head to one side. He looked slightly disheveled and was only in pants, his hair a little messed up and he was out of breath.

"What are you doing in there?" Rose asked.

"I—I was working out. Come on in." Bruce told her.

Rose raised an eyebrow. "You were working out in your room?"

Bruce chuckled. "I was too lazy to go to the workout room."

Rose smiled and then she looked at Bruce and he looked back at her with his calm eyes. The thing was Rose felt like she had seen those eyes before somewhere else—and not on Bruce.

"So what brings you here actually talking to me?" Bruce asked slowly.

"I'm sorry." Rose admitted.

Bruce came over to her and sighed, resting his hands on her hips as she wrapped her arms around him and looked up at him.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing. I was being a moron, Rose. I shouldn't have sprung that on you when neither of us are ready. We don't need to deal with this corporation thing until we'll completely firm in this relationship. I've missed you so much, Rose." Bruce explained.

Rose smiled. "Just shut-up, Bruce."

"What?" Bruce asked.

Rose planted her hands on either side of his face and pulled him to her. They kissed softly, smiling a little into it since it was the first kiss they'd actually shared, and then they wrapped their arms around each other and held each other close. As the kiss escalated, the two continued the conversation with more physical actions, both of them exhausting each other and falling asleep in each other's arms.

When Rose woke up in the middle of the night, she turned to see Bruce sleeping next to her and smiled. They had reconciled, and she felt a little more whole knowing that they were talking again. She got up and pulled a robe around her to cover her naked flesh, and then she wandered around the mansion. Thoughts of the night before ran through her mind and would make her smile, but she wanted to be more acquainted with the mansion.

After looking around every room, Rose came to a door that was locked and pondered it for a minute. She didn't think Bruce would mind much if she just took a peek, but then again maybe it was locked for a reason. Sighing, she ran her fingers through her hair, finding a hairpin amongst the messy locks. Smiling, she took it out of her hair and picked the lock, walking down a small hallway, stopping as lights turned on and the Batmobile sat in front of her on a turntable. There were large windows for viewing things, gadgets, Batsuits, and as her eyes widened, her jaw dropped.

"Bruce is…he's Batman?" She asked herself in astonishment.

She crossed the threshold towards the Batmobile, looking up as alarms went off. Alfred's voice could be heard in the programming, saying "intruder alert, intruder alert", and Rose sighed as she turned to see Alfred who only smiled and turned the alarm off.

"So I see you've found the Batcave." Alfred said.

Rose nodded and then she suddenly felt angry.

"He's been lying to me." She told Alfred. "And after everything we just did…how could he do this to me?"

****

Alexis sat down at the lunch table and looked at Eva and Rose and sighed a little. She would much rather be with Logan right now because Eva was missing Peter, and Rose looked seriously miffed and hurt.

"So…what's going on?" Alexis asked cautiously.

Eva shrugged. "I just miss Peter…I have no idea what's up with Rose."

Rose looked up and sighed. "Bruce and I…we're in another fight."

"But I thought you went over to his house last night to make up with him." Eva said.

Rose nodded. "Yes, and I thought we were all right. We apologized, slept together, and then I got up and wandered around in the middle of the night and…"

"And what?" Alexis asked as Rose paused.

"…he hasn't been truthful with me. He's been my escape and yet I haven't known and he has." Rose explained.

"Honey…are you on something?" Alexis asked.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Eva asked her.

Rose just shook her head and went upstairs to her room and Alexis sighed.

"Well I should get back to work if Rose has nothing more important to tell us. What did she want to say anyways?" Alexis asked.

"Actually, I was the one with the news, but I think I'll wait until April comes home." Eva explained.

Alexis nodded and then hurried out the door and went to work, smiling as she found information on mutants on her desk. It was nice to be getting back into the groove of things, and so she sat down and looked over her notes before she got to work writing an article.

When she was done, she looked it over until there was a tapping at her door and she looked up to see Jane standing there. After motioning for her to come on in, Jane sat down in the chair across from her and Alexis felt that something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Jane?" Alexis asked.

"Nothing's wrong, Alex. I was just coming to tell you that you're being promoted to editor." Jane said.

"But what about you?" Alexis asked.

Jane smiled. "Finbar and I have finally begun to start a family. I'm pregnant. I'm going to go ahead and stop working and let him bring in money from Xavier's School."

Alexis smiled too. "Congratulations, Jane! I'm going to miss you!"

She hugged Jane firmly, and Jane embraced her back.

"Thank you, Alex. I know you'll make a fantastic editor." Jane said.

Alexis laughed. "So what has Finbar gotten them to call him?"

Jane laughed too. "He's Lasso-Man."

Alexis raised an eyebrow as the laughter overcame her.

"Seriously? I mean I know he has ropes that come out of his hands and he's good with animals…but Lasso-man?" Alexis asked.

Jane shrugged. "He's taken to wearing a cowboy hat too."

Alexis smiled. "You think he'd let me interview him?"

Jane nodded. "Absolutely."

****

The trip on the plane was nerve-wracking. So many times Eva wanted to just call Peter and figure out what was going wrong, but then again: he didn't call her to tell her that one of the most important people in his life was in the hospital. Come to think of it, Mary Jane didn't even tell her—she had overheard.

At first Eva thought the plane ride would be peaceful, but soon she realized that having a peaceful flight was too much to ask for. Mainly, she was startled by a very familiar voice behind her.

"So what can you lift? 50? 90?" Rose asked the very cute male steward.

"It can't be." Eva told herself.

"100 actually." The man replied. "Here are your peanuts. Could you help me—I mean can I help you with anything else?"

Eva turned to see Rose playfully thank him and shake her head, and the man blush and walk a little bit farther down to help someone else.

"Rose?!?" Eva asked. "What the Hell are _you_ doing here?"

Rose shrugged. "I thought I would go to New York. I heard about Aunt May, and so I figured you'd be going, and I needed to get away."

"What about Bruce?" Eva asked.

"We're not having a good…day." Rose replied.

"So this is just getting air—it has nothing to do with that crush you used to have on Harry all those years ago as kids?" Eva asked in a knowing voice.

Rose blushed. "Absolutely not!"

"Rose…you're a bad liar." Eva told her.

Rose shrugged. "Believe what you want. I'm here to go and see Aunt May, that's it."

"Riiight." Eva replied.

"So how much longer do you think this flight will take?" Rose asked.

"A while…trust me." Eva said.

Rose just nodded, and then Eva turned around and they both enjoyed the rest of the flight until they got to New York and grabbed their few carry on bags, and then hurried to Harry's place to get directions to whatever hospital they were all at. Eva refused to let Rose call Peter, and so Harry was the only choice.

"What are you doing?" Eva asked Rose as she straightened her blouse and fixed her hair.

"I'm looking presentable. You don't have to have a cow about it." Rose replied.

Eva sighed, and then she rapped her knuckles on the door and tried her hardest to not let it get to her that Peter was a jerk.

"Well hello you two!" Harry exclaimed as Rose's face lit up. "Oh my God! Is that you, Rose? You grew up…well."

Rose walked up to him and looked him over a bit, smacking his butt lightly.

"You too, Little Man." Rose said.

"We need to know which hospital Aunt May is at." Eva told him, wanting to get there soon.

"You mean Peter didn't tell you?" Harry asked.

Rose and Eva shook their heads.

"He didn't even call me—Mary Jane did. And even then, no one said anything. I'm starting to get the feeling that no one wants us here." Eva admitted.

Harry smiled. "_I_ want the two of you here. So Rose…how's Bruce?"

****

April only had another day in Metropolis, and Lois had roped her into a lunch. Not that April didn't _want_ to go to lunch with Lois, but she wanted to spend more time with Clark before she left. Christmas was in a couple weeks, but what she really wanted was for it to be New Year's—Clark was having a New Year's Party, and the whole family was going to come up for it.

"So where are we going?" April asked.

Lois smiled. "A little shop on the corner."

April nodded and followed Lois down the streets of Metropolis, both of them ending up at a quaint little café on the corner of the street. As they sat down at the little metal table, Lois smiled a more mischievous smile, and April looked at her funny.

"What?" April asked.

Lois smirked. "So how much do you _really_ know about Superman?"

"What do you mean?" April asked cautiously.

"I mean, what do you know about him?" Lois asked, thinking at this point that April knew more about Superman than she was letting on.

"Well, he's the man of steel. He has x-ray and heat vision…he's faster than a speeding bullet and can scale tall buildings in a single bound." April answered slowly, shrugging her shoulders. "Why?"

"Earlier you said that he was 'okay' and that 'a man like that can only also have a heart of steel'." Lois quoted.

April opened her mouth in an 'o' shape because she finally saw what Lois was doing.

"So you think I said that because I know him personally and I'm not impressed?" April asked.

Lois nodded. "Absolutely! So tell me the dirt on him!"

"I don't _have_ any dirt on him." April lied. "I just know what I've experienced. I mean I was saved by him once. But he saves lots of people doesn't he?"

Lois sighed. "Look, April, I've been in this business for a while, and so I know when people are hiding things from me. Just what about him do you think you have to hide for him?"

"I'm not hiding anything for him." April lied again, but this time she stressed it enough that Lois bought it and nodded.

"Well what was your experience in him saving you?" Lois tried.

April smiled. "Well it's much more of a personal thing than anything else. He's been a really good friend to me, and I appreciate his company."

"You and Superman are friends? Like best friends?" Lois asked excitedly.

"You could say that." April said slowly. "We do tell each other practically everything."

"By 'practically', what do you mean?" Lois asked.

April smiled. "I mean there are still really personal things that we hide."

"So…do you think he'll ever tell you his true identity?" Lois asked.

"Maybe." April told her. "Is your surprise interview over now?"

Lois laughed and nodded. "Yeah. Let's actually enjoy each other's company now."


	16. UhOh

Rose smiled at Harry as they sat outside Aunt May's room. At the moment, Peter was talking to his aunt, and Mary Jane was at work. Eva was trying to figure out what exactly she was going to do when Peter realized they were there, because she refused to talk to him still.

"So how is it you know almost nothing about Bruce?" Harry asked.

Rose shrugged. "We're not as close as you think."

Harry smirked. "You're not just saying that because you two are in a spat are you?"

Rose sighed. "Maybe. I dunno. I'm trying to understand why he lied to me, and I guess that with Aunt May here, coming here to see her and having you here seemed like the perfect place to think things over."

"You want to use me as your outlet?" Harry asked.

Rose nodded slowly. "If you'll let me."

Harry smiled. "Well I'm still in love with Mary Jane, but she wants Peter, so I need an outlet as well."

"Nothing too…well…deep?" Rose asked.

"Of course not." Harry agreed.

"You know…I had a crush on you when I was 7." Rose admitted slowly.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I was 6."

Rose nodded. "And I still thought you were the best boy ever."

Harry smiled. "I always looked up to you. You've always been spunky and willing to take risks."

Before Rose could comment, Peter came out of the hospital room and they all looked up at him.

"I'm so glad you guys made it!" Peter cried, going over to hug Eva but being deflected.

Eva avoided his touch and went past him into Aunt May's room, leaving Peter stunned and confused.

"What's wrong with her?" Peter asked.

"Peter…it would best if you just didn't talk to us, okay?" Rose told him, going past him as well as Harry shrugged.

"You pissed off the wrong girls, Pete." Harry said as Rose went in to see Aunt May.

"Oh my goodness!" Aunt May exclaimed. "You girls are all grown up!"

Eva and Rose smiled.

"I guess we are." Rose admitted.

"And who knew that a beauty such as yourself would be Peter's choice after Mary Jane." Aunt May told Eva.

Eva nodded. "Yeah. I guess my crush on him all these years has paid off finally."

Aunt May smiled. "Indeed. So where is he?"

"Avoiding our wrath." Rose admitted.

"Wrath? What did he do?" Aunt May asked.

Eva shrugged. "Other than not calling us to even let us know what was up…nothing."

"Though not doing anything is his pitfall in the first place." Rose said.

"Peter didn't call you? Then how did you know?" Aunt May asked.

"Mary Jane called to 'catch up' with me," Eva replied, using her pointer fingers as air quotes, "and I overheard Peter telling her you were in stable condition and resting. So we hurried right over. You're like family, Aunt May."

"Awwww, girls. I love you too." Aunt May told them.

****

Alexis smiled all the way home. She was more excited about the promotion than people would expect. Mainly she wanted to be able to gloat to her family, but she was also happy that all of her hard work was paying off.

"I can't believe I'm the editor now." Alexis told herself as she was driving home. "I mean how cool is that?"

Part of her was really sad about Jane leaving though. She'd known Jane for the four years she'd been working at the magazine, and now she was about to run it. Jane had been at the paper for eight years, and now she was about to bring a baby into the world—her and Finbar both.

Finbar Delaney was a rather odd individual. He was always telling wild and crazy stories and dressing up in his cowboy hat. At least he was the perfect gentleman. Alexis wouldn't be nearly as happy for Jane and Finbar, had Finbar not been a gentleman and madly in love with Jane. It was weird though, that the couple was already starting a family when they'd only been married a few months.

"At least they're happy." Alexis told herself, stopping off at the supermarket for some ice cream to celebrate the promotion.

Alexis was intending on dancing around and cheering with her family over the promotion, even if April wasn't going to be there to share in the fun. At least April would be home tomorrow. She would wait, but Alexis was too excited. When she got home, she threw open the doors and began to chant as she held the gallon of ice cream in one hand.

"I got promoted! I got promoted! We've got alcohol and cake to celebrate here! And I've got ice cream!" Alexis called up the stairs in a sing-song voice as she danced around near the door. "Okay…where the Hell is everybody?"

She knew that if no one came to the mention of cake, alcohol, and/or ice cream, no one was home. Spying a note on the banister, Alexis went over to read it and sighed. It read:

_Alex,_

_Following Eva to New York._

_Aunt May is in the hospital._

_Have fun having the house to yourself._

_April will be home around 4 in the morning from Metropolis._

_Rose_

Alexis looked around the dismal feeling house and shook her head—there was no way she was staying in this creepy house alone, even _if_ Willoughby was there. Quickly scrawling out a note for April, Alexis headed out the door and took a drive to the hotel she knew Logan was staying at. She checked in at the front desk and went up to his room, knocking on the door. Logan came to the door and looked surprised to see her, motioning for her to come in.

"What brings you here?" Logan asked.

"Look, I'm not one for beating around the bush, so let's cut to the chase—I don't like the mansion when it's creepily deserted. So I'm going to stay here with you tonight. However, one of us—namely you—is sleeping on the floor while the other one—namely me—is sleeping on the bed until tomorrow morning, early, when April gets in from Metropolis." Alexis told him.

Logan nodded. "Riiight. I'm too tired to argue."

"Good." Alexis replied, not expecting such a quick agreement. "Night then, Logan."

****

Eva looked at Aunt May and sighed a little. She wasn't quite sure what to do now that she was sleeping, and when Peter came into the room, Rose left and Eva sighed again—she didn't want to deal with Peter right now.

"What do you want?" She managed to ask.

Peter sighed. "I don't understand why you're mad at me."

Eva just shook her head and left the room, avoiding his touch yet again as he tried to grab her arm and get her to stay.

"We can go." Eva was saying, but she quickly just gasped as she stumbled across Harry and Rose obviously using each other as outlets. "Stop sucking face and let's go home, Rose!"

Rose pulled away from Harry as she heard Eva's scolding voice and then turned to him and shrugged.

"I guess it's time to get back to my man, kiddo. I mean part of me feels bad, but part of me thinks I just got him back for lying to me. Who knows how many girls there have been? I sure don't." Rose said.

Harry smiled. "Thanks for this, Rose. I have more hope at getting Mary Jane back now."

Rose laughed. "I don't know how, but I'm happy I could help."

Eva grabbed Rose's wrist and dragged her off, both of them getting into the rental car and then going to the airport again, waiting to board the plane.

"I can't believe you would do something like that!" Eva exclaimed.

Rose sighed. "Eva?"

"Yes?" Eva asked calmly, sensing the hurt in Rose's voice.

"What if you found out that all this time, Peter had been using you? How would you feel? What would you do?" Rose asked slowly.

Eva turned to her sharply. "Bruce _used_ you?!?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah. I mean…this was the only way I thought I could deal with it, and now I feel so guilty I want to hurl."

Eva sighed and rested her hand on Rose's back.

"I may be the youngest, but it sounds to me like you're in love with Bruce even though he hurt you. Tell him you're hurt and that you need to cope. Let him know that you will let him go if you have to, unless he owns up to what he did." Eva said.

Rose laughed. "You know, sometimes I think you listen to Alexis and April giving their advice a little _too_ much."

Eva smiled. "That must mean that my advice worked."

Rose nodded. "I'm feeling better about it all."

"Flight 786 to Gotham City now boarding at gate H5." The Flight Attendant announced.

"That's us." Rose told her.

Eva nodded. "Absolutely."

"I call the window seat!" Rose said, hurrying to the gate.

"Not if I get it first!" Eva called, hurrying to catch up with her.

****

April kissed Clark softly as they waited for her plane. Clark had wanted to take her, but having already paid for the roundtrip ticket, April was going to go back on the plane. Also, it would just be strange if she suddenly appeared home.

"You could wait longer here then." Clark suggested.

April smiled. "Some other time, I promise, Clark. Since I surprised you with this visit though, I'm going home like a normal person."

Clark pouted his lip but April laughed.

"You know, that doesn't work on me." April told him.

Clark sighed. "All right. I guess I'll see you at Christmas then?"

April nodded and kissed him one last time before boarding her plane and then going to Gotham. She always hated leaving Metropolis, but it was just something she had to do. When she arrived in Gotham, she took the monorail to a drop off near her house, and then hurried inside.

She had expected people to be up and waiting for her, even if it _was_ four o'clock in the morning. However, she could tell that the large, creepy mansion was deserted—even Willoughby was gone.

"Where is everyone?" April asked, but then she saw a note on the banister and looked at it.

It read:

_April,_

_I'm off._

_Back in a bit._

_Welcome home._

_Have fun in the empty house alone._

_Call my cell if you need me._

_Oh…and try not to need me._

_Alex_

April sighed, and then picked up her cell phone and called Alexis. Alexis answered after a few rings and sounded a little groggy.

"Hello, April." She said softly.

"Hi! Where are you?" April asked.

"At the store." Alexis replied quickly.

"At…four o'clock in the morning?" April asked suspiciously.

"Yep. I woke up and had a craving for hot chocolate, but there's no milk so I'm picking some up." Alexis replied.

April went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, sighing as she saw the milk.

"But, Alex, we have milk in the fridge." April said.

"Really? What fridge are you looking in?" Alexis asked.

"The one in the kitchen." April replied, knowing they had one fridge.

"Oh! I didn't check that one!" Alexis exclaimed.

"Alex…you sound groggy. Did you just wake up?" April asked.

"No! No! I just thought we needed another carton of milk!" Alexis told her.

"But…I thought we didn't have any." April replied.

"Don't be silly! There's some in the fridge!" Alexis said.

April raised an eyebrow. "I'm just going to see you when you get home."

"Okay, April. Oh…it's four o'clock in the morning…you can't expect anyone to be smart." Alexis told her, and hung up on April before she could reply.


	17. The Milk Conspiracy

When Rose and Eva stepped off of the plane, Rose smiled a bit and then she and Eva got on the monorail to get on home. They arrived at around seven o'clock in the morning, and opened up the door slowly. As they peered in, they slowly shut the door and then were about to tiptoe upstairs when they turned to see Willoughby.

"Up already, girls? I've just made breakfast! Mind waking up the other two?" Willoughby asked, disappearing into the dining room.

"You have got to be kidding me. He thinks we just woke up? I want to go to bed!" Rose whined, stomping her foot like a four-year-old.

Eva smiled. "I told you to nap on the plane, and you ignored me. It's your own damn fault."

Rose stuck her lip out and pouted as Eva went to get Alexis and April up. Going into the dining room, Rose slumped down in a chair, but she beamed as Willoughby brought out his famous eggs.

"You know, Rose, I'm afraid there is no more milk." Willoughby told her as the others entered the dining room.

"Really? Because Alex got some this morning." April said.

"April…shut-up." Alexis told her through gritted teeth, in words no one but April could hear.

"I have some milk you can borrow." Batman said from the window, and Rose immediately knew that the milk thing was a conspiracy.

"I don't want your milk." Rose said scathingly.

"But I do!" Eva replied happily, going over to the window and opening it wider, taking the gallon of milk from him.

"Eva! Weren't you ever taught not to take things from strangers?" Rose asked.

Eva looked at her. "Rose…he's Batman. He's not going to poison us. I'll take whatever I want to take from him."

"Oh. So you're saying that if he came up to you and said, 'Would you like some candy, Little Girl?' you'd just take it from him? Is that it?" Rose asked.

Eva nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

Rose sighed. "Fine. You have the milk…I can do without it."

"You know, Batman, you can stay for breakfast if you want to." Eva offered as April and Alexis each took a seat across from each other.

"He doesn't _want_ to stay for breakfast." Rose said, shooting the remark in Batman's direction.

"Actually, I'm quite famished. Thank you for the invite, Eva." Batman replied, crawling in the window and shutting it behind him.

"You can have a seat next to Rose, Master Batman." Willoughby told Batman.

"He most certainly can _not_!" Rose exclaimed, standing up.

"Rose, what is your affliction? I thought you were mad at Bruce." Eva said.

"She's mad at Bruce? _Again_?!?" April asked.

"Oh…yeah. He lied to her again. Apparently she found out something about him while she was wandering around his house." Alexis replied, shoveling eggs into her mouth.

Unknown to her, Batman already knew that Rose knew who he was, and he was trying to make it up to her—and failing even more than if he had just come as Bruce Wayne to apologize instead of carrying on the façade, which is the main reason why she was mad at him in the first place.

"She's pissed he used her. I mean what kind of man would do that? Use the woman he claims to love?" Eva asked.

Batman was feeling rather bad at this point, and set his hand on Rose's when she sat back down, causing her to stand up again.

"You know, what? I'm not hungry." Rose said, and went up to her room quickly.

****

Alexis watched as her sister fled, and sighed a little.

"I'm sorry, Batman. I really don't know what's up with her." Alexis told him. "You're welcome to stay and share breakfast with us, though."

Batman tried to smile. "Yeah."

"So what have you been up to? Crime fighting? Peeping Toming?" April asked.

Batman chuckled a little. "I don't do any 'peeping toming'."

"Why not? Superman does." April shrugged.

"He what?" Eva asked. "How do you know?"

"Because I slapped him for it the other day." April shrugged again.

"So you got to talk to him?" Eva asked happily.

April gave a her a look. "Well I was talking. He was peeping. So I gave him a good flick of my wrist."

Eva and April started to laugh, so Batman continued because Alexis looked like she wanted to know what else he had to say.

"So I don't do any 'peeping toming'," He repeated, "but I do have a significant other."

At this point, Batman wasn't going to completely lie.

"Maybe _that's_ why she's mad at you! She needed another outlet, and after making out with Harry, she wanted to make-out with you. And being the know-it-all of you, she knew you were off limits and didn't want you rubbing it in her face." Eva suggested, drinking some milk before setting in on her eggs.

"She made out with Harry?" Batman asked, a little bit too annoyed. "Which Harry?"

"Harry Osborn." Eva replied.

"Peter's friend?" Batman asked.

"Are you…jealous perhaps?" Alexis asked.

At this point Alexis was a little confused. Here Rose was, having issues with the two men she adored most in life—Bruce and Batman—and now Batman was showing that he cared for her.

"Jealous? Why would I be jealous? I'm Batman." Batman said.

"So did you guys like…have some sort of little thing we don't know about?" Alexis asked, knowing there was something else here.

Batman shook his head. "Absolutely not. Could you pass the milk, Eva?"

Eva nodded, and passed him the milk, all of them eating more food before April spoke up.

"Wait a minute…Rose made out with Harry?" April asked.

Alexis was about to tell her to stop being stupid and tuning people out, but the phone rang so she got up to answer it in the kitchen.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hi, Alex! It's Peter." Peter said from the other end.

"Oh, hi, Peter! How are you?" Alexis asked.

"Wow…you're actually talking to me." Peter told her.

Alexis was confused. "Um…if you rather I didn't…"

"No! No! It's just that…no one else in your family is talking to me. Well, at least Eva and Rose aren't. April just…doesn't _want_ to talk to me." Peter explained.

"Wow. What did you do?" Alexis asked.

Peter sighed. "That's just it…I don't know."

Alexis frowned and then called Eva, who refused to talk to him.

"You know what, Pete? Let them cool down. I'm sure we can get to the bottom of this." Alexis promised.

****

Eva was annoyed Peter had called. At the same time, she was kind of relieved. At least he wanted to patch the problem up that he pretended to have no hand in creating. However, she needed to simmer down and know she could be rational when talking to him before actually dealing with him.

"So why aren't you talking to Peter?" Batman asked.

Eva shrugged. "He didn't tell me his Aunt was in the hospital—nobody did. She's the most important person in his life, and the minute she needed people, he didn't even contact me—he contacted Mary Jane instead."

Batman frowned. "You'd think that if he loved you, he'd have called you."

"I told you that you shouldn't have resorted to sex after Mom died, Eva. Now the boy has gone and deprived you of your innocence _and_ broken your heart. Don't worry, though. There's a rifle in this house somewhere, and enough backyard that no one will even know he's missing…of course I wouldn't do something like that…" April added as Batman looked at her. "I'm not a criminal."

As she said this, April flashed Batman a cheesy smile, and Eva laughed.

"It's okay, April. Sooner or later we'll talk through this. We're in love enough that we can get through it." Eva told her.

Then it dawned on her that April still thought she and Peter had been sexually active. Sighing, Eva sent her sister a look.

"You seriously still think that Peter and I slept together?" Eva asked.

April laughed. "Please, Eva. Of course you did!"

Eva sighed. "April…just because you and Clark had sex, doesn't mean the rest of us did."

"Eva!" April scolded, blushing furiously. "Clark and I did not have sex!"

Batman was slightly uncomfortable, but he stayed sitting there and smiled brightly as Alexis came back into the dining room.

"Alex!" He said.

Alexis laughed. "They must be talking about something embarrassing."

"I was just telling April that she and Clark are the only ones who have had sex in this house." Eva told Alexis, who laughed again.

"April and Clark have not had sex yet, neither have you and Peter, and though Rose and Bruce have, it wasn't in this house—it was at his. Thank the lord." Alexis said.

"See?" Eva asked. "Peter and I have been smart about this relationship."

April shrugged. "For now at least. I don't trust him with you."

"Only because you're a mother hen." Eva said.

April sighed. "Anyways. Batman. You ever had sex?"

Batman chuckled awkwardly. "A few times."

"Ever heard of keeping it in your pants?" Alexis asked.

Batman nodded. "I loved each of them."

"For a moment I was naïve and actually thought it was with the same person." Eva said slowly into her glass of milk, blushing.

Batman blushed too. "There's only one woman I really want…and right now I can't have her."

****

April wasn't sure of what to make of Batman's last comment.

"So by a few, what do you mean?" April asked.

Batman shrugged. "There were three different women."

"Okay…uncomfortable conversation!" Alexis exclaimed. "Let the man be! I'm sure he's had three different girlfriends. Now…what's with this woman problem?"

Batman sighed. "Well…we're in a spot right now. I think she wants me to be more truthful with her."

Alexis nodded. "I see."

"So why don't you tell her who you really are?" April asked.

Batman sighed. "That's kind of the problem…she already knows."

With the risk of them knowing too much already before Rose had even coped with it, Batman stood up and excused himself from the table. When he was out the window, she looked around the table and then Willoughby came back into the room.

"Did Master Batman leave already?" Willoughby asked.

"For some reason, Willoughby, I have no idea if you're making a joke, or actually going senile today." April told him.

Willoughby smiled. "I should start making my inflection on the jokes that make me seem unobservant more distinguishable."

April nodded with a grin on her face. "Absolutely."

"Well…I don't know what to do…I'm beat." Eva replied. "Night all!"

"But it's almost 8!" April protested.

"You guys may have all gotten some sleep, but I didn't." Eva said. "I got here from the plane at 7. Dude…night."

April raised an eyebrow as her sister left the room and Alexis shrugged. Neither of them really knew what to do today, but Alexis had to go to work for a bit. Since she knew Rose would probably go over to Bruce's to yell at him, and Eva would go out and take photos of things, she was going to get Clark to come over. She really missed him.

In fact, why wait until later? Willoughby started to clear off the table, and then April looked up as Alexis stood up and began to help him. She was thinking about helping them with the dishes, but she really just wanted to call Clark right now.

"I'm going to go ahead and head on into work, April, hon. Have fun." Alexis told her after a little while.

April nodded. "I will. You have fun at work too."

"I always do." Alexis smiled.

Then Alexis left the room and April peered out into the hall, smiling as Rose was hurrying down the stairs, but she looked more pissed than earlier, and April had no idea why. Shrugging it off at the moment as Rose threw open the door and ran out of it, April pulled out her cell phone and called Clark.

"I need you." April told him when he picked up.

"I'll be there in a second." Clark said happily.

"Who's really counting?" April asked, smiling.

"I am." Clark replied, standing in the dining room with her.

April beamed and turned around, jumping on him and wrapping her arms around him.

"Let's do something." She told him.

Clark smiled. "I'm yours all day."


	18. Forgive and Forget

Rose kept running down the street, crying the whole way. It was bad enough that Bruce had made it worse for himself showing up as Batman at the breakfast table, but then he had showed up at her Bay Window in her room, and gotten mad at her for the Harry thing. Sure, Rose wasn't upset at Eva for saying anything, but after what Bruce did, he had no right to be angry about it.

"You are such a hypocrite!" Rose cried at Bruce's mansion.

"Master Rose…are you all right? I beg your pardon…" Alfred began, but soon came over to her and hugged her as she dropped to her knees and sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Alfred. I didn't mean you. I meant Bruce." Rose explained.

Alfred nodded. "I understand, Rose. I told him all those times he went to talk to you that it would come back to bite him in his posterior."

Rose cracked a smile at Alfred's choice of words, and then wiped her eyes.

"Is that all this is about?" Alfred asked her calmly.

Rose nodded. "Him not telling me he was Batman is far behind me. I understand—well I understand _more_ now. I just—he didn't respect when I didn't want to talk to him. Then he showed up as Batman today at breakfast when I was almost ready to talk to him."

Alfred embraced her again, and then he sighed.

"So that's what brought you here this morning, yelling at the house?" Alfred asked with a smile.

Rose laughed a little. "Yeah."

"Well if you want to brave talking to him, you can just walk on in. As far as Master Bruce is concerned, this house is yours as well. I thought that the two of you would be the perfect couple…and maybe after you get past this rough patch, you'll be fine." Alfred suggested.

Rose nodded. "I wish."

Alfred helped her to stand and she brushed herself off and wiped her wet eyes.

"How terrible do I look?" Rose asked.

Alfred rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"You look beautiful. Don't worry about it." Alfred replied, handing her a key.

Rose kissed Alfred's cheek, and then she went into the mansion and then she stood there and closed the door behind her. She looked down at the key and then up at the door that led to the Batcave, and she went over to it, taking a deep breath and unlocking it, walking in and standing there as she saw Bruce throw one of his gadgets across the room.

"Violent much?" She asked him, surprised no alarms went off.

Bruce was surprised to see her standing there, and even more surprised when she tossed him the key.

"Alfred gave this to you for a reason." Bruce told her.

She shrugged. "I don't want it."

"I want you to have it." Bruce replied, tossing it back.

She caught it and then she nodded slowly and pocketed it.

"All right." She said, and then she put her hands in her pockets and walked around a little, out of Bruce's reach. "So…we're at a bit of a standstill."

Bruce nodded. "I know. I want you to know that I was only Batman to talk to you because I messed up so early on and I couldn't bear to be away from you. I've never cared about any woman this much, Rose."

"We're such a soap opera." Rose replied with a slight smile. "So let's forget everything and start over, all right? That's the way real life should operate—forgive and forget."

****

Alexis sighed a little as she sat in her office. Finbar couldn't come in today because he was helping Jane with a prenatal class today, and so all she could do was get some information on mutants. However, the place seemed so empty today and she already had her article done for today's issue.

"I could just…leave." She contemplated to herself.

"And come with me." Logan added.

Alexis looked up and smiled a little.

"I could definitely do that." She told him.

Alexis grabbed her things and then took Logan's hand, trying to get out of the office before anyone really realized she was there. She still had yet to tell anyone outside of the office about her promotion, and so she wasn't sure if she wanted Logan to stick around and hear from the people she worked with when her family didn't even know.

"So where are you taking me?" Logan asked her with a chuckle.

Alexis smiled. "I thought _you_ were taking _me_ somewhere."

Logan laughed. "Then let's go down this road."

Alexis nodded and followed him a little ways until they got to an old-fashioned pizza parlor.

"I found this place the other day, but you've been a bit busy." Logan explained. "I thought you'd like it, though."

"Wow. Thank you so much, Logan! I love this!" Alexis exclaimed, kissing him in gratitude. "I'm amazed that a place like this is actually in Gotham."

Logan laughed. "Yeah, I was surprised too. It's so…cheerful."

"Doesn't it make you wonder what a place that isn't dismal is doing in the streets of the darkest city in the world?" Alexis asked as they sat in a booth inside.

Logan nodded. "It really does."

"Hold on." Alexis told him, picking up her phone.

"Alex!" Eva exclaimed.

"Hey, Eva." Alexis answered.

"Where are you?" Eva asked.

Alexis sighed. "I'm at a pizza parlor with Logan, actually."

"Wow! You two are spending time together at a pizza place?!?" Eva asked.

"It's for an interview." Alexis covered, and Eva sighed.

"Oh. Okay. Well, can you get here when you're done?" Eva asked her. "Because I have some important news to tell everyone."

Alexis nodded. "Yeah. I can get there after I'm done here."

"Good! See you then!" Eva said before she hung up on her.

Alexis hung up and gave Logan an, "I'm sorry" look and he shrugged.

"It's okay, Alex. I understand that you want this to come out on your time. Let's enjoy some pizza, and then I'll drop you off at your house." Logan said.

"Hey…" She said softly and they made eye contact. "I _will_ tell them at Christmas. I have it all planned out."

Logan smiled. "You want some breadsticks with your pizza?"

****

Eva sat on the floor of her house and sighed. She wanted to tell them about the plans she had with Peter, but at the same time, she didn't know if moving in with him was still a go. Not knowing it made her want to call Peter, but she didn't know if she could contain herself and be less angry with him or not.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asked herself.

She got up and brushed herself off, and then she went down the stairs because she hadn't taken the nap she had wanted to take. Instead, she had been trying to talk herself out of calling Peter. Of course if she wanted to talk to him this much…why not just call him then?

"Eva?" Willoughby asked, rapping his knuckles on the door. "There's a call for you."

"Who is it?" Eva asked cautiously.

"It's Peter…for the fifth time this morning." Willoughby explained. "I figured by now you were ready to give the boy a chance."

Eva sighed and nodded. "All right."

She took the cordless phone from him and slowly raised it to her ear. Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Hello, Peter." She managed.

"I'm so sorry that I did something to hurt you." Peter told her quickly, knowing that if she decided to hang up on him, he would at least have gotten that out.

"You should be sorry." Eva told him softly. "I don't really know what you were thinking—if you were thinking at all."

"Eva, forgive me…but I'm really very confused. What did I do?" Peter asked.

Eva's jaw dropped. "What did you do? You didn't do _anything_ Peter! Aunt May was in the hospital and you didn't call me! Any of us!"

"What are you talking about? Mary Jane told me that she would call you when I found out about it. I was so distressed and trying to take care of Aunt May that Mary Jane told me she'd take care of contacting you since I was so not up to anything." Peter explained. "And from what I can tell, Mary Jane told you what was up. So forgive me for not calling you myself!"

Eva was at a loss for words when she heard Peter growing very angry with her. If Mary Jane told him she was going call for him, and then did, she failed in one part—she didn't tell Eva anything.

"She didn't tell me." Eva said slowly as Peter stayed on the line.

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked.

"I'm talking about the fact that Mary Jane did call…but she pretended like she wanted to know how I was." Eva explained.

"Then…then how did you know to come?" Peter asked her after a long pause.

"I overheard you telling her that Aunt May was stable. I don't know who told Rose…unless Willoughby told her I was going, because I told him what I was up to. I've been mad at you for nothing?" Eva asked.

"I guess so." Peter replied.

Eva nodded sadly. "I'm so sorry, Peter."

"I'm sorry too, Eva. I love you. Please know that." He told her.

Eva smiled. "I know that, Peter…and I love you too."

****

April smiled at Clark as he stroked her hair, and then Willoughby entered the kitchen and smirked at the two of them.

"I'm sorry. I will return later though to fix food…please carry on…Clark. I assume you don't want me to refer to you as Superman." Willoughby told him with a smile.

"How did you know?" Clark asked in a hushed voice as April's eyes widened.

"I'm very good friends with Batman's assistant." Willoughby explained. "I know your identity as well as his. You must understand what's going on with Batman's girlfriend."

April raised an eyebrow. "Just how much _do_ you know, Willoughby?"

Willoughby smiled. "I know that young Master Clark here knows more about things than he's letting on…and if you thought about it more, I'm sure you'd get it all too, April. You're part of something big right now, and you don't even know it."

April took it all in for a moment and then she sighed a bit. She wasn't quite sure what Willoughby was getting at, but it was doing her no good thinking about anything he had said.

"So are you staying for dinner, Master Clark?" Willoughby asked him.

Clark looked at April who nodded.

"Yeah. He's staying for dinner. Are we expecting Rose home you think?" April asked.

Willoughby shrugged a little. "I'm not sure, April. She took off rather desperate to get something taken care of."

What no one was aware of was that Willoughby knew everything. He knew about Clark. He knew about Bruce. He knew about what was driving Rose crazy, and he had known about Peter for a while too. Alfred too. Everyone seemed to over look the butlers.

"Well, we'll get out of your way." April said, dragging Clark off to the garden. "What was he talking about, Clark?"

Clark sighed. "Well…I'm Superman, and I know you know that…but you do know what that means, right?"

"Um…that you have super powers?" April asked.

Clark chuckled. "Yes, but it also means that my best friend is Batman."

"I kind of got that since Batman knows who you are…but that means that you know who _he_ is. So who is he?" April asked.

Clark smiled. "I can't tell you that."

"Why not? Some sort of super code?" April asked.

Clark chuckled and wrapped his arms around her.

"Kind of…I just can't go around telling people who Batman is. That's for him to decide to do when he's ready." Clark said.

"It has to be someone you know…doesn't it?" April asked.

"April, I'm not going to help you unmask him." Clark said. "I know how to get your mind off of it."

With that, Clark kissed her suddenly, and though caught off guard, April smiled and wrapped her arms around Clark's neck, returning his kisses with her own. It was nice to have a super boyfriend.


	19. Renewed Trust and Announcements

Rose rested her hand on Bruce's right peck and kissed him softly as he held her to him and ran his fingers through her hair. She smiled into him and then they looked each other in the eye.

"See how well this forgive and forget thing works?" Rose asked him with a smile.

Bruce chuckled. "Yeah, I see."

Rose propped her head up on her hand and sighed.

"I have a question for you though." Rose said.

"And what is that?" Bruce asked, turning on his side to face her.

"Well…how did you know we were out of milk?" Rose asked.

Bruce smiled. "Well, Willoughby and Alfred are better friends than you think. You see, Willoughby knew I was having difficulties with everything because Alfred and him told me not to try and talk to you as Batman while you were mad at Bruce—and I didn't listen to them."

"But they're so…smart, you loon." Rose told him.

Bruce nodded. "They are. They knew it was going to make you mad, but I did it anyways. Anyhow, Willoughby told me that if I came over and brought us milk, he could get us to talk again—but he meant as Bruce."

Rose laughed. "Sometimes I wonder about you. You're the smart, eligible bachelor, Bruce Wayne the billionaire, and you're the crime fighting, detective, Dark Knight Batman…and yet you are so dimwitted sometimes."

Bruce stroked her cheek. "I know. For some reason you reduce me to a bumbling idiot."

Rose shook her head. "Actually, that would be what April does to Clark. I just reduce you to an over-thinker with no actual brain capacity—in the nicest way possible, mind you. I do love you."

Bruce kissed her. "I love you too."

"So what are we going to do for the rest of the night?" Rose asked, snuggling into the soft, warm covers.

"Well…" Bruce began with a smirk, "I know something we can do in this state…"

Rose laughed. "We already did that, silly. I want to go somewhere. You could take me out to fight crime."

Bruce gave her a look. "I definitely cannot."

"Why not? It's not like you'd let anything happen to me. And if you're going to go and put yourself in danger, I might as well be there to watch." Rose said.

Bruce sighed and pulled her to him. "And if something went wrong and something happened to you?"

"I could take care of myself." Rose replied. "Do you have something else more exciting planned?"

Bruce shrugged. "Well I don't know about exciting, but…"

Rose laughed. "Let's get up and go out somewhere. If we have a lot of fun, then I'm more likely to do what _you_ want later."

Rose got up before Bruce could protest, and pulled her clothes back on before going into his bathroom as he pulled his clothes on reluctantly too.

"So what do you want to do exactly?" Bruce asked as Rose brushed her hair and pulled it back.

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. What fun things are there in Gotham?"

Before Bruce could answer, Rose's phone rang, and she went over to the nightstand and picked it up.

"Hello?" Rose asked.

"Hey, Rose! I've called you several times now." Eva told her.

Rose blushed. "Sorry, I've been tied up. What's up?"

"I need you home for dinner…I have important news to tell everyone." Eva explained.

****

"Thanks for dropping me off." Alexis told Logan.

"Anytime." Logan replied.

Alexis smiled as Logan dropped her off at home, and kissed him before she went in the door and rolled her eyes. Rose and Bruce were against a wall kissing each other, and she figured he was going to be here for dinner.

"Well, hello you two. Nice to have you here." Alexis said loudly, clearing her throat.

Rose waved at her sister, but didn't pull away from Bruce.

"Don't worry, they'll come apart eventually. I think it has something to do with all this distance lately." April told Alexis, leading her into the dining room.

"Wow…everyone's here aren't they?" Alexis asked April with a whisper. "Hey, Clark."

"Hey, Alex!" Clark said happily.

Alexis sighed a little, wishing Logan could be here, but that would mean telling her family. Since Eva was telling them something important tonight, then she would wait for another day…or maybe two…or maybe just whenever the opportunity presented itself. Christmas or before—whichever felt more right.

"So what brings you here?" Alexis asked.

Clark shrugged. "April needed me. I haven't been here long."

April nodded. "I felt deprived of him."

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, yeah. So what's for dinner?"

"Willoughby made some pasta." April explained.

"Fun. So how long have the love birds been here?" Alexis asked, motioning in the direction of Rose and Bruce.

Clark shrugged. "Maybe like, thirty minutes."

"Did you like, interrupt something?" Alexis asked.

April shook her head. "We haven't talked to them all day, really. They just showed up, and then Clark and I came in here to set up since Eva's been getting ready all evening, and then I walk out there to ask Rose if she wants to help Willoughby, and they were like that."

"Right…Eva was the one putting this all together." Alexis said. "Anything I can do to help you?"

April shrugged. "Well all we're really doing is setting the table. Willoughby isn't done cooking yet. He might need help, but I doubt it—Rose only helps him to help him for the hell of it. He doesn't ever really _need_ it."

Alexis nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I know."

"So what is everyone up to? Welcome home, Alex. I thought I heard your voice." Willoughby said.

Alexis smiled. "Yeah, it's me. Clark and April actually seem to be doing something in here…anything I can do to help?"

"Just help them with the table, and then could you go and check on Eva? She hasn't been downstairs in hours." Willoughby told her, a little worried.

"How about I go and check on her now?" Alexis asked.

"We're good here." April told her. "You go check on her."

Alexis nodded, and then she left the dining room and went to go and see what was up with Eva. She hadn't realized that Eva had cooped herself up in her room since everything went down, and she was really curious as to what got Rose and Bruce speaking. Climbing up the stairs past the two, Alexis went to Eva's room.

****

Eva smiled at her reflection and then took a deep breath. She could do this. She knew she could. All she had to do was come clean about everything. Let everyone know what was really up with everything. She was going to wait until it was too late for anyone to talk her out of things, but she couldn't…she had to do this now.

"Eva?" Alexis asked, knocking on her door.

"Come in, Alex." Eva told her, sighing a little.

Alexis opened the door and looked at her cousin.

"You have people worried." Alexis explained.

Eva nodded. "I guess I do. I just—I'm worried. No one is going to take this well."

"Take what well, Eva?" Alexis asked.

Eva shook her head. "I'll tell you with the rest of them."

"You're making this sound really bad." Alexis told her.

Eva smiled. "Trust me…it's nothing bad."

Alexis nodded, and then the two of them went down the stairs to go and have some dinner. As they were going past the living room, Alexis sighed and stood with her hands on her hips as Eva smiled.

"I'm glad they're back together." Eva told her.

Alexis nodded. "Me too, but this is a public house."

Eva laughed. "Dinner's ready you two."

Rose looked at them from the couch and nodded.

"We're coming." Rose replied, taking Bruce's hand and bringing him into the dining room.

Willoughby was already setting things out on the table, and then as they all took their seats, Eva gulped. She was so thankful right now that the dining hall was so large and the table large too. That gave her a good couple feet between her and her sister. She was going to be the only person happy about this—or at least the only one that wouldn't want to rip her head off.

"Wow! Pasta! Yes!" Rose said. "Thank you, Willoughby."

"You're welcome, Rose." Willoughby answered. "And you might want to let your hair down."

"What?" Rose asked, but Willoughby pointing to his neck made Rose laugh. "Ah. Whatever." Rose replied, the hickie not of her concern right now.

"I wasn't really expecting Clark and Bruce, but it's okay." Eva said suddenly. "I just—I have something important to tell you all. I've been hiding it for a while, but I can't very well hide it for very much longer. Soon, everyone will know about it anyways."

April's eyes widened. "You're pregnant, aren't you?!?"

Everyone at the table looked at Eva astonished, but she shook her head quickly, a blush rising in her face.

"No! No! Nothing like _that_!" Eva said quickly, and everyone was relieved. "But this does have to do with Peter."

"What about him?" April asked menacingly.

Eva took a deep breath. "Well…I'm moving in with him come Christmas—in New York."

"Peter's going to wake up in a coma." Alexis whispered to Rose, who nodded.

****

April was so angry with Eva for this. It was an outrage! Move in with Peter? What was she thinking? At least she wasn't pregnant. That came as some relief to her.

"Wow. This is…big." Rose said.

Eva nodded. "Yeah. I know. It's just—we really do love each other, and this distance is hard. He can't move here, so I'm going to him."

Everyone looked at April as she searched for the words to say, and Clark reached for her hand.

"Is this what you really want?" Alexis asked her.

Eva nodded. "Yeah. It really is."

"What happened to you being mad at him?" April asked, trying to be calm, but everyone noted her anger.

"He explained what happened. Mary Jane said she'd call me—and didn't. He's mad that she would try and jeopardize our relationship like that, and he's sorry. It's imaginable that he would be too flustered to think straight, and he's sorry. And I forgive him." Eva explained.

Rose nodded. "It's good to forgive those that you love."

She smiled at Bruce who smiled back, and took her hand in his, kissing it softly.

"Don't you think you're being rash?" April asked.

She was torn. She really did want Eva to be happy, but at the same time, Eva was only 19. April didn't care how much Eva thought she loved Peter—even how much she _did_ love Peter. April wanted to make sure her little sister was going to be okay. And at 19, moving in with a boy was far from being okay.

Eva smiled. "April, I know you're looking out for me, and I'm so happy that you care, but I want to do this. I want to be with him."

"And if it doesn't work out?" April asked.

"Then she's welcome back here." Rose said.

"I just want to make sure she's thought of everything. After Mom, it seems like everything is suddenly spiraling—everything's changing." April admitted, and everyone could tell that she was distraught.

"April…" Eva began, and then Willoughby walked over to April and hugged her.

April told herself that she wasn't going to cry. She cried sometimes, but not often. She had cried over the loss of her mother and her pets, and her heart had been broken before, but now it was like she was losing her sister too.

"Peter will take care of her, I promise you that." Willoughby whispered to her.

"How do you know that?" April asked back, hugging Willoughby tightly.

"Trust me." Willoughby replied.

April nodded into the old man that had always treated them like his children, and then he let go to go and get them the desert he had also made.

"I suppose…I suppose I can give you my blessing." April said.

Eva got up and ran over to her sister, hugging her fiercely.

"I'm going to miss you!" Eva told her. "I don't think you know how much."

April smiled. "I'm going to miss you too. But really, Eva, if he hurts you, I'm going to kill him."

Eva smiled too. "I would expect nothing less, April."

April nodded as her sister kissed her cheek, and then they all ate dinner.


	20. Rose and Bruce are Dirty

Rose bustled around the house happily, trying hard to make sure that everyone was ready to go to New York. She didn't want to talk about all the arguments lately about Eva leaving, but she was ready to see Peter, Harry and Aunt May again. The only thing she was dreading was seeing Harry again and having it be weird.

"You guys ready yet?" Rose called.

"Almost!" Alexis called back.

April came to the top of the stairs and sighed.

"So Clark is meeting us there with Mrs. Kent?" April asked.

Rose nodded. "Absolutely. Has Eva grabbed the rest of her bags that we haven't already sent to Peter?"

April shrugged. "She's finishing now."

"The flight is soon, so I need you guys ready now!" Rose cried.

"Ready!" Alexis said. "Is Logan here yet?"

Rose shook her head. "And if he doesn't get here soon, I'm leaving him behind. Why is he coming anyways?"

Alexis shrugged. "You know Logan…he invited himself."

"Ah." Rose told her. "Well Bruce is already here and waiting so when you're all ready, let me know."

Rose sighed and walked into the living room, smiling as Bruce looked up from the couch and then she sat down next to him. She laid down, resting her head in his lap, and he ran his fingers through her hair.

"It's supposed to be Christmas." Rose said.

Bruce chuckled. "It _is_ Christmas, or did that bracelet scream something else to you?"

Rose smiled and looked at her bracelet before she turned over and looked up at him.

"Thank you again for the bracelet." Rose told him, sitting up a bit and kissing him. "I just…no one's ready to go to Peter's—and Eva's moving in with him today. Do you know what's going to happen when we start walking by that empty room in the future?"

"I think it's going to hurt April more than anyone else." Bruce said.

Rose nodded. "I know it will."

"We're ready." Alexis said, everyone coming down the stairs.

"Good. Now where's Logan?" Rose asked.

As she said that, the doorbell rang and so she grabbed her things and they all went to the door and opened it.

"Nice to see you're here." Rose told him.

"Sorry I'm late." Logan said.

"It's no big deal." Eva replied. "Rose is just a little on edge."

"Truthfully, we all are." April admitted. "We're going to miss you."

"Where are you going?" Logan asked, pretending like he didn't know anything.

"I'm moving in with Peter today." Eva said. "He's been getting parcels from me for the last couple weeks, and now we're finalizing everything."

Logan smiled. "Well congratulations."

April sent him a look and he shrugged.

"Let's just get to New York, okay?" April asked.

Rose smiled. "Absolutely! Let's please go!"

****

Alexis was more than happy when the plane ride was over. Rose and Bruce had been really close and so Alexis figured it was just the whole sleeping together thing. They'd been really, _really_ close since the last time they had made up, and now that Alexis could smell cranberry sauce and Aunt May's special Christmas Ham and Christmas Turkey, all she cared about was food.

"It smells so wonderful in here!" Alexis exclaimed.

"Thank you, Alex, Dear! My have you grown!" Aunt May said, hugging her as Peter kissed Eva in greeting right in front of Mary Jane and Harry.

"How you doin', Rose?" Harry asked, and Rose laughed awkwardly as Bruce tensed up.

"I'm fine." She replied.

"I see you brought Bruce this time." Harry said.

"And I brought—" Bruce began, slipping into a bad mood.

"—Apple pie!" Rose put in, still laughing awkwardly.

"Did Bruce find out?" April asked Alexis.

Alexis shrugged. "Apparently."

"Well let's get on into the Living Room and exchange some gifts." Aunt May said, trying to get everyone to change the subject.

"Actually, Aunt May, you think we could all eat first, and then digest dinner while we exchange gifts. In the meantime we can all feast on the appetizers and I can help Eva unpack." Peter suggested sweetly, Eva smiling at him and holding his hand.

"I think that's a good idea, Peter. You help Eva unpack and I'll check the main courses." Aunt May said, and Peter and Eva bounded up the stairs.

Alexis went into the dining room and grabbed herself some apple cider, looking at Mary Jane as Mary Jane came over to her.

"So what's up with Harry and Rose?" Mary Jane asked.

"You're talking to me…why?" Alexis asked.

Mary Jane sighed. "Alex…really…what's up with them?"

"Did you not hear?" Alexis asked her, sipping more hot, apple cider.

Mary Jane shook her head. "Did something happen between them?"

"Did you not notice the looks he gave her?" Alexis asked.

"He was checking her out." Mary Jane said.

"Mary Jane, Honey, could you help me?" Aunt May asked.

Mary Jane hurried into the kitchen, and so Alexis walked towards the Living Room a little, perking up her ears as she overheard Rose and Bruce talking to each other.

"So you want me to hold it?" Rose asked.

"I would like that very much." Bruce replied. "Careful though…it's hot."

Rose giggled. "That's okay. I've done this before."

"Yeah…right there…that's good." Bruce said.

Alexis felt like she was going to gag—they were doing this here?

Rose sighed happily. "This is good."

"I completely agree. It's the best yet. We should do this more often." Bruce stated.

"Maybe we should do this in a more…private room." Rose suggested. "I mean I don't mind doing it here, but someplace quieter we can hear each other better."

"Oh my God you can _not_ do this here!" Alexis exclaimed, bursting into the room and looking at the two of them sitting on the couch rather properly, Rose holding a mug.

"What? Drink hot chocolate?" Rose asked.

Alexis sighed. "Never mind."

****

Eva smiled as she unpacked her things. She was finally here, and it had taken her a long while to get to New York. Besides him being Spiderman, Eva knew that this way they could spend more time together. When he got home late, she'd be there. When he needed to talk to her face to face about anything, she'd be there. She was happy to be his rock—happy that they were speaking again.

"You have a lot of things." Peter said. "It feels good that there will be three people living here. I love Aunt May and everything, but there are more people and now when I'm out being Spiderman, she has someone else to talk to. She knows by the way."

Eva nodded. "I figured she did."

"So," Peter began, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, "what do you think?"

Eva stopped folding clothes and leaned into him smiling.

"I think that this is going to be an amazing adventure." Eva replied.

Peter chuckled. "I do too. It's nice to know we'll be seeing a lot more of each other."

Eva nodded. "It really is."

Peter turned her to face him and then he stroked her hair and sighed a little.

"I hope you don't mind that Mary Jane is here. She and Harry had nowhere else to go." Peter explained.

Eva kissed him softly. She hadn't been able to do that in a while and she missed it.

"It's all right, Peter. I really don't mind. It's Christmas. The whole point of Christmas is to spread a little holiday cheer and forgive and forget." Eva replied, and then the two of them grasped hands and went down the stairs.

"Slowly slide it into the hole." Rose said in a happy voice.

Bruce chuckled. "I do know what I'm doing."

"I know, and you do it well." Rose complimented in a sexy voice. "Just be gentle."

Eva's eyes widened because it sounded a lot like sex talk to her.

"I'm always gentle, even when you want me to be rougher." Bruce replied.

"What are they doing?" Peter asked Eva, and he looked a little uncomfortable.

Eva blushed. "I don't know, but I'm sorry for them. I really am."

"It's not your fault, we should just, stop them." Peter replied.

Eva nodded. "Yeah."

"Give it to me." Rose told Bruce.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Bruce asked.

Rose laughed. "Bruce, it's not like I haven't handled this before. Now move up and down."

"You mean like this?" Bruce asked, trying to let her know he knew what to do.

"That's perfect." Rose said in a softer voice.

"Guys, you really shouldn't do this here…" Eva began, trailing off as she saw Rose and Bruce in the kitchen sticking Popsicle sticks into apples and dipping the apples into a caramel mixture in a pot.

She looked around as she saw that there were several already on some wax paper for people to have, and Rose looked miffed.

"You don't want caramel apples?" Rose asked. "And what is it with everyone coming in and telling us not to do things?"

"Nothing." Eva replied, smiling it off. "Absolutely nothing."

****

April was most excited when Clark arrived. Everyone had been off bustling around and doing their own thing, and now April was talking with Mrs. Kent.

"How's work been, April?" Mrs. Kent asked.

April smiled as she sat on the couch with Clark. He was holding her hand and he was rather content, and that made his mother happy. As long as Clark was happy, pretty much everyone else in Metropolis was happy…because he was Superman, and if Superman was having a simply fantastic day, then so was everyone in Metropolis that needed saving.

"Actually, it's fantastic. I've become the lead field reporter, and I mean it's not like Gotham doesn't have problems." April laughed.

"Still, we do worry about you a lot." Clark admitted. "All of that crime."

"It's not like I'm going to die or anything, Clark…but thank you both for caring so much. Batman's there." April said.

"That's right. How is—" Mrs. Kent began, but Clark shook his head.

"She doesn't know." Clark said in a soft voice.

"Know what? Oh…Batman's identity. That's okay." April smiled, but suddenly she thought more about it.

Why hadn't she tried to figure that out yet? Wouldn't that be an amazing story? Unmasking Batman to all of Gotham City. At the same time, though, people's lives were much more important than any story would ever be. Batman needed to stay a secret.

"I think Bruce and Rose were making caramel apples. Do you two want some?" Mrs. Kent asked.

April smiled. "Sure."

"I'll help you, Mom." Clark said, and followed her into the kitchen after kissing April swiftly.

April decided that she was going to go and pick out her own caramel apple, and as Bruce and Rose went past her to the couch hand in hand, she figured she should keep Clark and his mother busy in the kitchen for a little while longer.

"So how about them Red Sox?" April asked, which was normally Alexis's line to get through awkwardness, but it the first thing that popped into April's head.

"I don't really watch baseball." Clark said.

April smiled and shrugged. "Me neither."

Clark laughed. "I really do love you."

April was about to answer as Mrs. Kent smiled at the two of them, but then they heard a strange conversation coming from the Living Room.

"So basically you want my hand here?" Rose asked.

Bruce chuckled. "Yes…"

"Does that feel good, or should I rub harder?" Rose asked.

Bruce moaned. "That's perfect…right there…"

"You're tense…relax…enjoy it." Rose said.

April hurried into the Living Room after apologizing to Mrs. Kent and Clark and she waved her hands around.

"STOP! RIGHT NOW!" She cried.

Rose took her hands off of Bruce's back and her eyes widened.

"Sorry, he needed a back rub." Rose said.

"Yeah, don't make her stop." Bruce replied.

"Why is everyone telling us to stop?" Rose asked intently looking at her from the couch.

April put her hands on her hips. "It sounds like you two are getting ready to have sex quite frankly."

Rose blushed. "Oh…sorry. We'll control ourselves next time."


	21. Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner started off rather nicely for everyone. They were seated around a nice large cozy table, and they were loud and friendly with each other.

"So how has work been, Rose?" Aunt May asked Rose as she carved the ham.

"Pretty well. I mean it would probably go better if Bruce would stop thinking he has to make sure I do practically nothing so it doesn't look like I'm getting special treatment." Rose answered, squeezing Bruce's hand to let him know she understood.

Bruce sighed. "I just feel like if I let you do everything I know you can do, someone will take offense at it."

"Probably," Rose agreed, "but what can they really do about it? I got promoted for my skills, didn't I?"

Bruce smiled. "Yes you did, because you're amazing at what you do."

"So why don't you…quit?" Harry asked. "I mean I hear that you stopped doing your protests and digging for the corrupt people of Gotham to make room for your promotion to co-owner."

Rose shrugged. "I like my job. Apart from feeling totally unchallenged, I like that I get to help Bruce with his company. He has so much else on his mind."

"Like what?" Eva asked.

Bruce smiled as Clark caught on, making eye contact with him.

"Oh there's taking care of the Mansion of course." Bruce said. "Rose is good at helping me out with the upkeep—can't leave it all to Alfred."

"Rose is very helpful indeed." Alfred agreed.

Rose smiled, but sighed a little—the truth was that she wasn't helpful at all. She hadn't actually helped Batman do anything—she just covered for Bruce occasionally when he had to take on his other identity. She felt rather useless in the business aspect, but the love life was going pretty well at the moment.

"So what about you, April? What have you been up to since you left Metropolis for Gotham?" Aunt May asked.

April smiled. "I'm the lead field reporter at the Gotham City News Station. As you can imagine, it's been pretty busy lately what with Joker running a muck."

"Almost as busy as the newspaper." Alexis said.

April nodded. "Almost."

"I hear the newspaper is going well for you." Clark said. "News is booming in Metropolis too. Ever since Lex started expanding."

"I heard about that." Alexis told him. "I have to admit that I try to stay away from that part of the news."

Everyone smiled and laughed.

"I don't blame you." Peter said. "I stay away from all the writing parts—it's the photographs that I'm in it for."

"And you're good at it." Eva told him, smiling at him fondly.

"So…Alex…anything new been going on with you?" Logan asked.

Everyone looked at her as she sighed, and then looked up.

"Well…Logan and I have been dating since Thanksgiving." She said.

****

Alexis didn't like the look on everyone's faces. Basically, they all had different expressions. Aunt May, Alfred, Willoughby, Eva and Peter looked happy for her, Mrs. Kent, Clark, Bruce and April looked miffed, and Harry and Mary Jane looked clueless. Then there was her sister—who looked pissed.

"What?" Rose asked as everyone else just gave a look.

"I've been keeping it a secret. It was a new thing, we were making sure it would work, and I figured that we were all in the Christmas spirit, so I should spill the news." Alexis explained.

Rose blinked and then she gripped her fork tighter.

"Is there anything _else_ you've been keeping from us that you'd like to share?" Rose asked.

Alexis looked down at her plate and pushed her turkey around, closing her eyes in disbelief and pain as Logan did the stupidest thing he could do.

"She got promoted at work." Logan said.

Alexis buried her head in her hands and then her head snapped up as she heard metal snap—wow…Rose was so pissed she broke her fork.

"So basically you've been lying to us since Thanksgiving?" Rose asked.

"No…I just haven't been telling you the whole truth." Alexis replied.

"Calm down, Rose…" Bruce said softly.

"Calm down? _Calm down_? MY LITTLE SISTER HAS BEEN LYING TO ME SINCE THANKSGIVING, AND YOU WANT ME TO _CALM DOWN_?" Rose cried.

"Rose…" Aunt May began.

"Sorry…" Rose told her. "Sorry…I just…may I be excused?"

Aunt May nodded, and Rose got up and went past Alexis, whispering, "secretive little bitch" in her ear, and then continuing out of the room.

"I think I'll go and talk to her." Bruce said. "I'm so sorry about this."

He got up to leave the table, and then April spoke up.

"Well, on the bright side, the two of you are happy." April told her.

Logan nodded. "Very…sorry about making that scene though."

"Oh don't worry about it, Logan." Aunt May smiled. "Rose will get over it—she's just adjusting to her sister having another relationship."

"Another one?" Mary Jane asked.

"You don't really think this girl didn't have a boyfriend before do you?" Eva asked.

"Oh…sorry." Mary Jane whispered.

Alexis waved it off. "That's okay, I don't talk about my exes…I have work…and now Logan."

Logan smiled and took her hand that was resting on the table.

"Are you sure that Rose is going to be okay?" Harry asked.

Peter nodded. "Of course she will, Harry, Bruce is talking to her."

"Trust me, Harry, if I can get over my sister and…that, then Rose can get over Alex and Logan." April said, eating some ham.

"Damn this is good ham." Logan smiled, following April's lead.

"It really is a very appetizing meal, Mrs. Parker." Clark said.

"Why thank you very much, Clark." Aunt May smiled. "And please, call me Aunt May."

****

Eva was a little unnerved that Rose was distancing herself from Alexis still. She and Bruce were sitting on the opposite side of the family room while everyone exchanged gifts, and chatted.

"Wow!" April exclaimed as she opened up a pearl necklace from Clark. "This is amazing, thank you!"

April kissed him, and then she looked at Eva.

"So what did Peter get you?" April asked.

Eva looked down at the colorful box in her hand and smiled a bit. Fixing Rose and Alexis would have to wait, because there was a large colorful box in front of her with ribbons and a pretty bow.

"So what did you get me?" Eva asked.

Peter smirked. "If I told you, it would be no fun opening it, now would it?"

Eva laughed and then she slowly unwrapped the present, looking at the box when she was done.

"So…you got me a box? That is the most romantic thing you could have gotten me." Eva said with a smile on her face.

Peter laughed. "I knew you'd love it."

Eva nodded and then opened the box, looking down at her new present. She had to adjust her face for a moment, and then she threw her arms around Peter's neck and kissed him. There were some astounded faces, mainly because everyone wanted to know what she got, but there was an 'awww' from Rose, who snuggled into Bruce more.

"What did he get you that deserved the PDA?" April asked, not wanting to see her sister kissing Peter like this.

Eva pulled away and stroked Peter's cheek as he smiled brightly.

"If I had known you would like it this much, I would have bought you all the accessories and things to go with it." Peter joked.

"What did he get you?" April asked again.

"He bought me the camera I have been pining after." Eva said, holding it up for everyone to see.

"You mean that thousand dollar one?" Rose asked in awe.

"I can't let you give this to me." Eva told him softly.

"Oh please, Eva, you bought me the editing software for my laptop and that cost almost as much as that camera." Peter said.

"Wow…my bracelet is looking more and more insignificant." Bruce muttered.

"My book to Alexi too." Logan added.

"And my necklace to April." Clark replied.

"Oh please, Clark, the necklace is amazing." April told him.

"I love the book, Logan." Alexis protested.

"The bracelet means I owe you the other half of my present…when we get home." Rose whispered.

The men smiled as the girls protested, and then Eva looked a little sad.

"Isn't your flight soon?" Eva asked.

Rose checked her watch and nodded.

"It is." Rose replied.

****

April sat on the plane and played with her necklace while Clark read a magazine and the others settled into their chairs. Rose had apologized to Alexis in the airport and now she was leaning her head on Bruce and running her fingers along his leg while Alexis and Logan talked to each other, and Mrs. Kent talked to Willoughby and Alfred as they all made their way to Gotham, where Clark and his mother would get another plane to Metropolis.

"Is that good? Any celebrity gossip?" April joked.

Clark blushed. "Just more Superman stuff."

April nodded and put her necklace in her bag.

"Superman stuff, huh?" April asked, shutting the magazine.

Clark put his arm around her and held her close, kissing her head. It was dark outside as the plane flew through the air, and when April yawned, Clark smiled and gazed down at her lovingly. He was so happy that so many of them were peaceful. Lately they had all found their significant other, and things could only get better, right?

"You tired or something?" Clark asked.

April chuckled softly. "Just a little bit."

Clark hugged her tighter. "Me too. We'll be there in a couple hours."

April nodded. "I know."

"When we get home, do you need me to stay with you?" Clark asked.

April thought it was sweet that Clark thought that she needed him at the house now that Eva was living with Peter, and she would have loved to have asked, but it was still Christmas, and Mrs. Kent deserved to be with her son tonight. If push came to shove, she would crawl into Eva's bed and the smell would comfort her.

"I'll be all right, Clark. Your mother deserves to have you tonight." April explained.

"All right, but if you change your mind…I can be there in the blink of an eye practically." Clark added softly.

April nodded and looked up at him, kissing him softly. Then she rested her head into his perfect body, and closed her eyes, embracing the sleep that brushed over her. She slept peacefully, only being woken up when the plane landed, and then she traveled with Rose, Willoughby and Alexis to the house, and once inside, they all looked around the living room and heaved heavy sighs before April broke off and went upstairs.

As she passed Eva's empty room, she stopped, and looked in the door. She stepped into the pretty empty room and she felt sad, but she knew that Eva was happy. Wishing she could handle this better, April went downstairs to find Alexis and Rose pulling out the couch bed and Willoughby bringing them food and movies to watch, and she smiled.

"You up for some movies and junk?" Rose asked.

April nodded, because she knew that all of them were trying to be happy and okay that Eva had left to live with the man she loved. It was that thought that made April smile a little—Eva was in love. It didn't matter that she was young or that she was rash—she was in love and there was nothing she could do about it…was April in love? She wasn't sure.


	22. Living Separate Lives

Rose lay there in bed in her pajamas and she sighed a little. They had all been dealing with Eva leaving in different ways—Alexis had been spending more time out with Logan and her colleagues, April had been spending more time at work, and Rose had been sleeping over at Bruce's. She knew that with Eva being the first to leave, it was only a matter of time before everyone else left, but it was New Year's Eve, and she wasn't going to down Bruce's spirit.

"Bruce?" She asked.

She sat up to see that Bruce wasn't in the bed anymore, and found a note on his pillow, and sighed—more Batman business. There was a new villain in Gotham now that went by the name of Two-Face due to acid that had been thrown on him. Harvey had once been a very prestigious lawyer, but due to a Batman related incident, he had become Two-Face and was bent on destroying Batman, which worried her.

"Why again?" Rose asked.

She got up and then wandered down to the kitchen, smiling at Alfred as he ate some eggs he had made himself and read the paper. He sipped his coffee before he looked up to see Rose getting into the fridge.

"Good morning, Rose." Alfred told her.

Rose smiled. "Morning Alfred. Smells good."

Alfred chuckled. "I can whip you up some if you'd like."

Rose shook her head. "That's all right. Do you know when Bruce will be back? I'm worried. Wrath is—it's a strong emotion."

Alfred nodded. "That it is. I'm sure he's fine."

"Did he eat before he left, or should I make him some pancakes?" Rose asked.

Alfred smiled. "Make him pancakes."

Rose nodded, and threw together some ingredients before making a stack of pancakes and taking them down to the Batcave. At first she thought that maybe she hadn't waited long enough, but five minutes after she had sat down at the table where he normally put his papers, the Batmobile drove in and parked on its turntable.

"Morning." Bruce said as he took off his mask.

"Morning." Rose smiled. "I come bearing pancakes."

Bruce chuckled and went over to her, after taking off his costume. Rose looked at the gash in his chest and his arm and freaked out.

"What happened?" Rose asked.

Bruce waved it off. "Oh it's nothing, Rose. You want to go to the circus tonight?"

"Nothing?" Rose asked as he ate his pancakes. "Nothing?"

Bruce smiled. He was happy she cared, but at the same time, he hoped she would freak out a little less. Getting hurt came with the job, and he was going to be fine.

"Rose…" Bruce began, but she shook her head.

"Go take off your clothes." Rose told him. "We're going to get you cleaned up."

"Seriously, Rose…I'm okay." Bruce said.

"Do not make me take them off of you and dump you in the bathtub." Rose warned, standing up.

Bruce smirked. "I might do just that."

Rose sighed. "Eat your pancakes…then take off your clothes."

****

Alexis smiled and hummed as she packed. She was excited to be spending the New Year with her boyfriend. Even almost more excited to spend her time among mutants who would give her interviews. The only thing that was getting her down was the fact that the house was so empty now. Everyone missed Eva—everyone wanted to fill the void in their life without her in it—something was just missing.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were at Bruce's." Alexis replied.

Rose shrugged. "He hurt himself and so I fixed him up and came over here while he goes to work. He actually wanted me to go to the circus with him."

Alexis laughed. "Yeah right!! You? At the circus? There are clowns there."

"I know." Rose said. "That's just…"

Alexis laughed as Rose shuddered, and then she finished closing her satchel.

"Well, I think I'm all packed. Logan should be here from Alkali Lake any minute." Alexis explained.

Rose gave a small sigh. "I'm going to be so fucking bored here by myself in Gotham."

Alexis laughed. "I'm sure that Bruce, and/or Batman will be more than willing to keep you entertained while I'm gone."

Rose laughed a little. "Yeah, I guess. God…_soooo_ not a fan of clowns."

"I _soooo_ know." Alexis told her, and then hugged her and went to answer the door. "Hey, You."

Logan smirked and kissed her. "Hey."

"Oh—it's you." Rose said. "I think you should leave now."

Logan sighed. "For the record, I told her to tell you."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Yeah…right."

Logan raised his hands up in surrender as Alexis laughed and then looked at her sister.

"It really was my fault, Rose. Well, look at the time! I gotta go." Alexis said, and hurried out the door as Rose stood there totally stumped.

Alexis grasped Logan's hand, both of them getting onto the back of Scott's bike.

"You like it?" Logan asked.

Alexis laughed. "Yeah. Tell Scott he has excellent taste."

Logan looked at her. "How'd you know?"

"Please," Alexis replied, "like this _belongs_ to you. I think I know you better than that."

Logan laughed, and then the two rode all the way to the Mansion, Alexis keeping her eyes closed, because of the speed of the bike. When they arrived, though, they were greeted by people that though Alexis liked and admired them, she was getting a little jealous. Rogue was first.

"Logan!!" Rogue cried, throwing her arms around him and then handing him dog tags. "Who's this?"

"That must be, Alex." Jean said, coming down the stairs.

Alexis immediately noted the look on Logan's face, and gave Jean a little glare. Oh no—he was _not_ checking her out! Bad dog!

****

Eva woke up in the bed in the new apartment, and smiled a little as Peter came in the window in his Spiderman suit.

"Oh no—Spiderman is here to kidnap me." She said, smiling at him and pretending to be shocked.

Peter chuckled and took the mask off.

"No—sorry—it's just my boyfriend, Peter. Lame." She told him, and shrugged, but giggled when he crawled onto the bed and hovered above her.

"Lame? Now I'm lame?" Peter asked.

Eva smiled, and felt a bit happier than she had before. Ever since they had moved into their own apartment—no matter how run-down—Eva had felt closer to Peter. He was even having more fun as Spiderman, so it all seemed pretty darn good.

"What do you think we should do today?" Eva asked.

"Oh, nice subject change. I totally believed that that part of the conversation was over." Peter told her, and kissed her softly.

"So is this what we're doing today?" Eva asked.

Peter kissed her again, stroking her hair, and then there was a knock on their door, and so Eva and Peter sighed, and he got up to change, and Eva opened the door a crack.

"I need rent." Mr. Ditkovitch told Eva.

Eva nodded, and then she grabbed her wallet, and handed the money to him. She knew she shouldn't be dipping into her inheritance money, but at the moment, Peter kept getting fired, so it was kind of a must.

"Sorry it's late." Eva said, and smiled her sweet Eva smile.

He smiled too. "It's all right—just have it on time next time."

Eva nodded, and then shut the door and Peter gave her a look.

"I said I could provide for us." Peter told her.

Eva blushed. "I know—but you have to admit that we need the help. And it _is_ my money. So it's not like I'm asking any favors."

Peter nodded, and rested his hands on her hips, kissing her gently for a little while before Eva pulled away, and made a face.

"You need to get to work." Eva said, suddenly.

Peter made a face and then he hurried around grabbing his jacket, stealing a kiss before he hurried towards the door.

"I have a surprise for you tonight." Peter told her as he went out the door.

Eva smiled. "Get to work, Love."

"I love you." Peter said.

Eva nodded. "I love you too."

Eva watched him leave, and then she sighed and got dressed. She needed to go ahead and get herself a job, which was proving to be a little harder than anticipated. She didn't like New York as much as she thought she would. She was proving to be a city girl, but she just missed Gotham, and her family.

"Eva?" Ursula asked, knocking on the door.

Eva smiled as she grabbed her jacket, and waved a little at the daughter of the landlord, who grinned at her.

"You got a letter." Ursula said. "Good luck job hunting today."

Eva grinned and took the letter. "Thanks, Ursula. I'll talk to you later today, okay?"

****

April sat and read in the loft on the farm, while Clark did his chores the normal way. April had thought about offering to help, but she really liked her book. So Clark told her to go read, and said he'd be there soon.

"I thought you could use some lemonade." Mrs. Kent told her.

April smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. Kent."

"No problem. How's the book coming?" Mrs. Kent asked.

"Actually…my hand is cramping." April muttered, and then looked at Mrs. Kent. "It's coming along fine. I really like it."

Mrs. Kent smiled. "Good to hear it. Would you like some ice?"

April nodded. "Yes, please—but not in the lemonade."

Mrs. Kent just smiled and nodded, and then came back with ice in a towel, and April applied it to her hand, blushing a little.

"I guess I'm a powerful reader." April shrugged.

Mrs. Kent laughed. "You're adorable."

April sighed. "Rose tells me that too much for me to continually jump on the 'thank you' wagon here."

"That's fine, April." Mrs. Kent assured her, and then Clark came bounding up.

"Hi." Clark said. "What did you do to your hand?"

April shrugged. "It's nothing. It just cramped up while I was reading. Your chores done?"

Clark nodded. "Completely. Want to head on inside and get dressed so we can go out and do something tonight?"

"Yeah." April said with a smile. "Thank you so much for the lemonade, Mrs. Kent."

"Aww, April—just call me Martha—please." Martha told her.

April grinned. "Thanks…Martha."

Martha gave her a smile, and then April followed Clark downstairs, and they both got dressed, the phone ringing, and April picked it up after Clark told her to, and then ran outside to do something.

"Hello?" April answered. "Kent Residence, how may I help you?"

"Hi, is Clark there?" A man asked.

"Yeah, but he just stepped out, can I take a message?" April asked pleasantly.

The man chuckled. "Sure. I was hoping that you and Clark would be able to come to my place tonight to celebrate."

"Oh. Um…who is this?" April asked.

"This is Lex." Lex replied.

April gasped. "Lex? Luther? Lex Luthur? As in _the_ Lex Luthur?"

Lex laughed. "Yes, April, I'm Lex Luthur. Guilty as charged."

April blushed. "Wow. Um…we'll be happy to join you to celebrate the New Year! How'd you know it was me?"

"Well I know the Kents' voices, you're the only one who would say 'Kent Residence' since they don't, and Clark talks about you all the time. I put two and two together, and I got four." Lex replied.

April laughed uproariously. "We'll see you tonight, Lex."


	23. New Year's Pt 1

Rose kissed Bruce lovingly, and nibbled on his bottom lip a little bit. Bruce had gotten out of the tub and come out with just a towel around his bottom half, and Rose liked it. She thought that maybe this way she could convince him not to go to the circus, but as always, things between Bruce and Rose were about to get rocky.

"I've decided to ask Chase to go to the circus with me." Bruce said.

Rose cocked her head to one side. "Excuse me?"

Bruce nodded. "I can't let the tickets go to waste, my presence would be nice, and…well…you don't want to go."

"Because I'm afraid of clowns! Couldn't you have asked a _male_ buddy? I mean you're taking that blonde, leggy whore!" Rose exclaimed. "One that might I add, is obsessed with Batman—and in the way that she totally wants him in her pants!"

"Rose, Honey, calm down. I don't like Chase like that. I just figured that she might like the circus—seemed like her kind of thing." Bruce told her.

Rose let out an annoyed noise. "I bet it's her kind of thing! I bet she picks up clients there regularly!"

"If it makes you that jealous…" Bruce began.

"I'M NOT JEALOUS! Go with her! I don't care!" Rose cried.

"Really? Cause it seems like you—" Bruce tried.

"I'm not—I mean I don't!" Rose interrupted. "So drop it. Go with Chase and have a fun time! Spend your New Year's with her! I have Willoughby and Alfred!"

Bruce smiled a little at Rose's little outburst, because the jealous side of her had never been blown up this far. He even started to chuckle a little, because he had absolutely no intention of spending New Year's away from her.

"Don't smile all hot-like when I'm mad at you! And don't chuckle either! Are you insane?" Rose asked.

"No." Bruce laughed. "But you are."

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "I resent that comment."

Bruce just shook his head and kissed her, and Rose gave in.

"We'll spend the night in." Bruce told her. "And for the record: you being insane is a compliment."

Rose smiled a little. "I like the idea of a night in."

Bruce nodded, and kissed her, this time dropping the towel. Rose pulled away a little, and he smirked.

"Oops…I dropped my towel." Bruce said.

Rose smirked a little herself, and then she unbuttoned the first button of her shirt.

"Oops…my button came undone." She told him.

He laughed. "You did that on purpose."

Rose faked a hurt look. "I did not."

She wrapped her arms around Bruce's neck and leaned into him, kissing him softly.

"You think you feel like putting that Batman outfit on again?" Rose asked.

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "I'm completely right in front of you in my birthday suit…and you want me to put the Batman outfit on?"

Rose shrugged. "I think it's hot."

"It's kinky, is what it is." Bruce replied.

"Maybe, but it'll be fun…I promise." Rose told him.

Bruce chuckled and shook his head. "Well all right then."

****

Alexis sat in her room at the mansion, reading the latest edition of _The Chronicle_, which she had gotten out just before the Christmas Holiday, when there was a knock at her door.

"Enter." Alexis said absentmindedly.

The door opened and Alexis looked up.

"JANE!" She cried, and threw herself forward out of her chair to hug her old boss.

"Hey Alex! Finbar told me you'd arrived. How's being editor of _The Chronicle_ treating you?" Jane asked.

Alexis smiled and shrugged. "Fair. How about you? How pregnant are you now, 4 or 5 months?"

"5½ months actually." Jane replied.

Alexis grinned. "Just 3½ months to go."

Jane nodded. "So how long are you here for?"

"Just two days. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I wish I could stay longer, but I don't think Rose should be left alone in Gotham with two mansions at her disposal. Who knows what she would do." Alexis said with a smile.

"Dance around in her underwear, swoon over Batman and Bruce Wayne, and eat tons of ice cream." Jane said.

Alexis laughed. "You know her so well. Oh didn't I tell you? She and Bruce are like an item now."

"Okay then. And no, you didn't tell me." Jane responded. "But I have to admit, that I totally didn't see that coming."

Alexis shrugged. "No one did. The two of them are pretty much…what's the phrase? Blind to love?"

Jane smiled. "Sounds like them. I always knew Rose had an ulterior motive working there. How is being Co-Head of Wayne Enterprises treating her anyways?"

Alexis burst out laughing. "She tries to get away as much as possible actually. She likes to just not show up. Lately though, Bruce has been making her go. They're about to come out to the public I think."

"Sounds like Rose. Wow. A press conference soon then?" Jane asked. "I feel totally cut off from Gotham here."

Alexis hugged her again. "It's okay. Gotham's a rat-infested, dank, dark place, that only some people actually enjoy spending time in."

Jane smiled. "You know, if Rose and Bruce ever get married, she's gonna be stuck there."

"That's why she has to convince him to take her somewhere else on their honeymoon." Alexis shrugged.

Jane nodded. "Absolutely."

Alexis was about to say something else, when Logan walked in the door, and he looked a little frazzled.

"What's up?" Alexis asked him.

Logan shrugged. "Not a whole lot. The professor wants to have this big dinner tonight. You interested? Then we'd be watching fireworks with Jean and Scott."

Alexis nodded. "Sounds like fun."

****

Eva was wandering around taking pictures _and_ looking for a good magazine or newspaper to work for. She kept looking in the window of the New York Times, and kept thinking about whether or not they'd hire her. She just needed to make a name for herself—or get them a really good picture of something they could use for a story. And then it happened.

Spiderman was saving a woman from a building collapse that very minute. Eva took some rather fantastic shots, including a fabulous one of Spiderman, Peter of which, didn't realize Eva was snapping better shots of him than he was getting of himself. Later that might pose for a little bit of controversy between the two of them. Going into the New York Times after a little while, Eva overheard just what she needed to hear.

"These are all crap! Where were our photographers? Huh?" The balding man asked rather heatedly.

"Sorry Mr. Walters!" A blonde man told him.

Eva took a deep breath and spoke up. "I took some pictures of Spiderman and the event today if you wanna take a look at them."

Mr. Walters looked over at her as she spoke softly, and smiled a little. This girl was obviously still a girl, but she was taking a stand in a place she'd never been before, and that was admirable.

He smiled. "Take them up to the dark room, and we'll see what you've got. I need whatever I can get."

Eva nodded, and then she hurried to the dark room after getting directions from the blonde man, that seemed to already look at her as his rival. When she came back later, Mr. Walters looked at her pictures and beamed.

"These are utterly fabulous! Not like the crap _these_ guys peddle me!" Mr. Walters exclaimed.

Eva blushed. "Thanks…I think."

"Oh it was a compliment, Kid. What's your name?" He asked.

"Eva Dulsche." Eva replied.

"Well Ms. Dulsche, you're officially a photographer for the New York Times. Can you start on Monday?" He asked.

Eva beamed. "I most certainly can."

Eva left after talking through the details, and then she got back to the apartment to a very sad looking Peter.

"I got fired." Peter told her.

Eva smiled sadly and sat down next to him, holding him close.

"I got a job at the New York Times." Eva said.

Peter looked at her, astonished and yet incredibly excited.

"Really? That's fabulous!" He replied, and kissed her.

Eva returned it and then stood up. "Come on. We're going out for New Year's. Right now."

Peter stood up and kissed her again. "I really love you, you know?"

Eva smiled. "I know."

****

April had gone through three outfits already trying to figure out which one was the best outfit to wear to Lex's house. Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor, the man with almost as much money as Bruce, who had almost as much money as God, had invited her to dinner. Well her and Clark, but as Clark's girlfriend, she was pretty much having to make a good impression here.

"CLARK!" April called.

Clark came in fixing his tie and smiled. "Honey, wear whatever. You're going to look fabulous."

"You _have_ to say that! You're my _boyfriend_!" April whined. "Where's your mother?"

Clark laughed, and then left the room. It wasn't fair of him to just come in and tell her she looked beautiful or fabulous or whatever. He was her boyfriend. She couldn't trust him with that kind of advice. He was biased. Clark came back with his mother, who smiled.

"April, you really do look fabulous." Martha told her.

April nodded. "Thanks. I guess I'll go with the black then."

Martha smiled. "I really like it. You guys have fun tonight, all right?"

April nodded. "I bet we will."

April fixed her hair, and then she grabbed her purse and the rest of her things and she and Clark headed to Lex's. April kept rehearsing what she was going to say, and then she took a deep breath when they came upon the mansion. April looked up in awe—it was way bigger than theirs, and cheerier than Bruce's.

"Holy shit." April said.

Clark chuckled. "It's impressive I guess. I like Bruce's better."

"Bruce's should belong to a depressed man that likes to cut himself and spends his spare time planning his next suicide attempt." April replied strongly.

"Wow. That was harsh." Clark told her.

April shrugged. "His mansion harshes my mellow."

Clark laughed, and then he rung the doorbell. After a little while, a butler came and ushered them in, and April squealed a little at the sight of the bald man in a tux standing next to the mini bar. He was way more attractive and cool in person.

"Welcome!" Lex told them, grinning. "Clark, you didn't tell me she was absolutely gorgeous."

"Clark didn't tell me you were absolutely gorgeous either." April said, then cleared her throat. "I mean, it's so nice to finally meet you, Lex."

Lex beamed and kissed her hand when she outstretched it to him. April blushed a little and then Clark got him and April a drink, Lex started to show April around.

"Wow, this place is awesome." April said. "I really do like your home. It's beautiful."

Lex nodded. "It's quite homey."

"I can only imagine how many memories you must have here." April said, and went over to a painting and looked at it.

Lex smiled. "You've picked quite the girl, Clark."

Clark nodded and sipped his scotch. "I most certainly have."

"So…we gonna stay in for dinner and then go catch the fireworks?" April asked, turning to them and taking her drink from Clark.

Lex nodded. "We most certainly are. I hope you're not vegetarian, April."

"Me? Hell no. I like my meat." April replied.


	24. New Year's Pt 2

"Okay, this night in, as fun as it is, needs some fireworks." Rose whined.

Bruce sighed, and leaned into his pillow, the sheets around his bottom half, covering anything he wouldn't want Alfred to see in case Alfred happened to just walk on in, not thinking they were here—thinking they were at the circus.

"Sorry." Rose said, sending him a true 'I'm sorry' face. "I know how much this means to you."

"It's not the non-cuddling after the sex, Rose. It's that I can't seem to make you happy." Bruce explained.

Rose sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face, and snuggling against him.

"You make me happy, Bruce, I just—I get restless _real_ easy." Rose explained. "It's New Year's Eve. We should be watching fireworks, not just having sex."

Bruce chuckled and put his arm around her. "All right. Give me 20 minutes, and then we'll go see some fireworks on the town, okay?"

Rose nodded, and after 20 minutes of cuddling and laughing, they got up and got dressed quickly, Rose more excited than Bruce to be going out into the city. They held hands walking down the street, with the snow fluttering around a bit, and Rose smiled.

"See, now this is nice." Rose said. "Well what we did back in the bedroom was nice too—you know what I meant."

Bruce kissed the top of her head as she laughed.

"Yes, yes I did." He replied. "So…where do you want to watch the fireworks?"

"The top of Wayne Tower. You can see _everything_ up there." Rose beamed, and then kissed Bruce back as he kissed her.

Before they could carry on this beautiful new beginning and understanding, Dr. Chase Meridian came walking down the street, bundled in an expensive coat. A man came out of nowhere to mug her, and Bruce had to think fast. He didn't have time to become Batman, so he hurried over and punched the man hard in the face, knocking him out.

"Oh!" Chase exclaimed. "Wow. You saved me."

Bruce shrugged and shook out his fist. "It was nothing. I—I was walking by."

"You're really strong, Bruce." Chase said, flirting with him a little bit.

Bruce blushed. "I just work out like any other billionaire."

"What you did was really courageous." Chase continued.

Bruce waved it off. "Oh, you have to have courage when you're in the kind of business I'm in. You didn't even scream—you're pretty courageous yourself."

Rose's jaw dropped. Was this really happening? Was this how it was always going to be with Bruce? Women flirting with him 2 feet away from her, and him flirting back? Well if that was the way it was going to be, she didn't want to do it. She walked up to him and stomped on his foot, Chase gasping a little, and Bruce looking at her, surprised.

"I'm going home!" Rose announced, and turned away dramatically, walking to her mansion.

****

Alexis laughed a lot at dinner, Professor Xavier telling a lot of fun stories about his teaching at the school. Logan laughed a little, but was being his old, stubborn self—and of course trying to keep his image of a hard-ass in check.

"When Scott was younger, he was a lot more stubborn than he is now. Always wanting to take off that visor of his." Professor Xavier said with a laugh.

Scott laughed too. "I was all about trying to impress Jean. I just didn't think I could do it unless I could look at her."

Jean smiled. "Awww, you impressed me with the visor, my dear."

"Yeah I bet he did." Logan muttered into his glass.

Alexis nudged him, smiling at Rogue as Rogue changed the subject.

"So how long have you been dating Logan?" Rogue asked her.

Alexis pondered that a moment. "37 days actually."

Rogue nodded. "You guys must still not know a lot about each other."

Alexis shrugged. "I think we know enough right now."

"Yeah. I agree with Alex." Logan told them. "We know enough right now to make it work."

Alexis smiled, and then she grinned a little more when Logan kissed her swiftly in front of everyone—in Jean's face!

"So what do you say we all go and watch some fireworks?" Professor Xavier offered.

"That sounds fantastic!" Scott exclaimed, noting that there was a little tension in the room.

Everyone else agreed, and hurried after Scott and Professor Xavier, to watch the fireworks outside.

"You know, Scott's really mastered his powers." Jean told Logan.

Logan shrugged. "Alex is the editor of a magazine."

"I can look into Scott's eyes now without anything bad happening." Jean replied.

"Yeah? Well Alex and I have nothing standing in between the love we're gaining for each other." Logan shot back.

Jean turned to him. "Scott can make fireworks by zapping a box of firecrackers."

Logan scoffed. "Alex lights them off like a normal human being."

"Hey, Scott." Alexis said brightly, taking his arm in hers. "What's new?"

"Aren't you worried about them?" Scott asked.

Alexis shook her head. "They can fight it out like grown-ups without us."

Scott laughed a little. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So…I really do think your optimal blast is kinda cool." Alexis said.

Scott smiled. "Few people do."

"Well most people are stupid." Alexis shrugged, and they both laughed.

"JEAN!" Scott cried.

Alexis turned around just in time to see Logan and Jean pulling away from each other. She didn't skip a beat walking up to him and slapping him hard in the face.

"I'm going home…asshole." Alexis said angrily, and turned to leave.

****

"Time for my surprise." Peter said.

Eva smiled as he led her into the club, and they took off their coats and sat at a reserved table.

"I haven't been to a club since last year for my birthday." Eva admitted.

Peter nodded. "I know. I took you there."

Eva smiled. "You will dance this time though, won't you?"

Peter shifted uncomfortably. Eva knew that Peter didn't like to dance where people could see him. She might be able to persuade him, but Peter was way shyer in public than he was in private. He had warmed right up to Eva and the Meckenzies, but only in private surroundings would he be his actual outgoing self.

"I dunno." Peter said.

Eva sighed. "Oh come on, Peter. For me? Please?"

Peter hung his head and then looked up. "Just maybe."

"That's Peter code for, 'not with people watching, Eva'." Eva said, in a deep voice, trying to imitate her boyfriend.

Peter laughed. "Yeah, it pretty much is. You know me too well."

Eva laughed too. "Fine, fine. Then I have to dance with a different good-looking person. I bet Spiderman would dance with me. No, wait—_you're_ Spiderman."

Peter sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll dance."

Whether or not he really would dance with her, would never be determined because to her utter displeasure and surprise—Mary Jane _and_ Gwen Stacey walked into the club and called out Peter's name.

"You have got to be kidding me." Eva muttered.

Peter looked at her. "What?"

Eva faked a smile. "Nothing."

"Hi!" Peter told them, smiling as they sat down.

Since Eva was sitting across from him at the little table, Gwen and Mary Jane both sat down on either side of Peter and fixated their gazes on him.

"Well, well, well, what's Peter doing here all alone?" Mary Jane asked.

Eva rolled her eyes. "He's wishing he was having a much better time."

"Peter, will you dance with me?" Gwen asked. "You're by far the cutest guy in here."

Eva took a sip of her ice water, and rolled her eyes again.

"Or you could dance with both of us." Mary Jane offered.

"Peter doesn't dance." Eva protested.

Gwen looked at her. "Oh please, everyone dances."

"Yeah. I mean who doesn't dance? That's ridiculous." Mary Jane said.

Eva smiled a little, and then bit her straw, drinking a little more ice water.

"Please, Peter? _Please_ dance with us?" Gwen asked pleasantly, batting her eyelashes at him.

Peter blushed. "Yeah, all right."

Eva's jaw dropped, and she choked a little on her water.

"Excellent!" Mary Jane exclaimed.

Eva instinctively threw her water in Peter's face, and stood up.

"Peter Parker, I'm going home." She said, and just as the tears filled her eyes, she was out of the club, and headed towards the airport.

****

Lex laughed a little at April's latest joke, and April sipped her martini and then Clark spoke up again.

"This girl of mine is funny, isn't she, Lex?" Clark asked.

Lex grinned and nodded. "She most certainly is. I can see exactly why you take her places."

April waved it off. "Oh stop. You're making me blush."

Lex and Clark smiled, and then April sat down on the couch.

"So do you guys mind moving this to a place a little higher off the ground to watch the fireworks?" Lex asked.

April beat Clark to the answer. "Of course we don't! Lead the way."

April took Lex's arm, and he smiled a little as they walked up the stairs.

"Wow! That statue is fabulous!" April exclaimed.

Lex nodded. "Well thank you very much, April. It's a family heirloom."

"Oh Lex, starting the party without me." Came Lois's voice.

April turned to see Clark's face light up, and she suddenly felt a little bad she'd been kind of flirting with Lex. Lois grinned as Clark offered her his arm, since April was on Lex's, and April narrowed her eyes at her. When Lois looked up though as they got up to the rooftop, April smiled.

"Nice of you to join us, Lois." Lex told her.

Lois shrugged. "Truthfully, I had nothing better to do, Lex. There's no Superman tonight, and why not get you to give me free, expensive food. Plus, I get to wear my good dress."

Clark smiled. "It's always nice to get the good clothes a nice stroll out of the closet, isn't it?"

"Most definitely." Lois agreed.

"You know, you look beautiful tonight, Lois. Really. Quite ravishing." Clark said.

April gritted her teeth a little. Had he said she looked ravishing? No. No he had not. That wasn't fair. That wasn't the way it was supposed to go down.

"Yeah, she looks fantastic." April said, and she knew a bit of disdain came through, but Lex jumped right in to cover for her.

"Look! There goes a firework!" Lex told them, pointing up into the sky.

"Did you do something new with your make-up, Lois?" Clark asked as the light from the fireworks illuminated her face.

Lois blushed. "Actually, yes I did."

"Look! Another one!" Lex exclaimed as he saw the look on April's face.

"I did something new with my hair." April told them.

Lois smiled at her for the first time since she'd gotten there. She had taken quite a liking to Clark all spiffed up and proper looking.

"I like it." Lois said, and she smiled.

"Yeah…it's nice." Clark told April absent-mindedly.

April had had enough. She walked over to Clark calmly, and poured her martini over his head.

"Clark, you wanker. I'm going home." April told him with a smile, and left Lex's Mansion, after eating the olive off of his shirt.


	25. New Year's Pt 3

Rose started walking down the sidewalk to the mansion, and when she looked up from cursing that her mascara had run, she saw April. She raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to one side, and April stopped and looked confused as well.

"Hi." Rose said. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I left and came back. What about you?" April asked.

"Oh I left Bruce at Wayne Tower about an hour ago." Rose told her.

April raised an eyebrow this time. "You _walked_ home?"

Rose looked shocked. "Damn-it! I could have taken a taxi!"

Rose and April walked up the walk, and as soon as they entered the house, they heard sounds coming from the living room—very familiar sounds. As they entered the living room, they saw junk food galore, and they saw Willoughby sitting on the couch, watching _Titanic_, and he was only about twenty minutes in. He looked up panicked, and stopped the movie.

"What are you two doing home tonight?" Willoughby asked.

Rose and April were gonna say something, but April was too depressed, and Rose looked like she was going to cry again.

"Willoughby? Move that bag of chips so I can curl up with you and cry in your lap." Rose said sadly.

Willoughby nodded, and then April grabbed the bag of chips, and sat down on the floor, Rose curling up into him, him running his fingers through her hair as she wiped her eyes. After another twenty minutes, Eva came into the house crying, and heard not only the movie, but April and Rose commenting a bit. So Eva ran into the room and Willoughby opened up his left side to her, Eva crying into him as he rubbed her shoulder. Ten minutes after that, Alexis came in and entered the living room as well after slamming the front door behind her and locking it angrily.

"What are we watching?" Alexis asked.

"Titanic." They all chorused.

"Move over." Alexis told April, and shrugged off her coat, leaving it on the floor and sitting down.

Alexis snatched the chips up from April, who looked scandalized.

"Here, take the Swedish Fish, April." Rose offered, handing April the bag.

April's face lit up. "Yes! I didn't even know these were in here!"

"Oh please, Willoughby knows us all _too_ well." Alexis replied.

They were all rather silent watching the rest of the movie, and at the end, rather loudly, they all yelled, "No, Jack! NO!" Willoughby laughed a little, and they all looked at him, mouths agape. Then, all at once, Rose took his right shoulder, Eva took his left shoulder, Alexis took his left leg, and April took his right leg—and they smacked him hard.

"Ow!" Willoughby cried. "Pain! Old man in pain!"

"Sorry." They all told him.

Willoughby smiled. "Nice to know you girls still have some 'punch' in you. I'll go make us all some hot chocolate."

He stood up and left the room, and then the girls all looked at each other. They all wanted to talk. Wanted to complain. So they did what they usually did.

"Whoever thinks they have the worst story, go last." Eva said.

Rose nodded. "I'm going last. What happened to you guys?"

****

Alexis sighed, and shook her head. "Mine definitely is not going first."

April nodded. "Fine, _I'll_ go first. Clark was flirting with Lois from the moment she walked into Lex's Mansion. He couldn't take his eyes off of her."

"Oh, April!" The others cooed.

April nodded. "It was terrible."

Eva took a deep breath. "I'll go next. Peter took me to a club, which at first was great, but then Gwen and Mary Jane came in and asked him to dance. Then he said he would—in front of _people_. Right before then, he said he wouldn't dance with me."

"Ouch!" Rose exclaimed, cramming a gummy bear in her mouth and then grabbing the gallon of ice cream Willoughby had brought out ten minutes before, and opened it.

Alexis rested her hand on Eva's shoulder, and then put another Ferrero Roca into her mouth. She looked at her sister. No way Rose had a worse story to tell. No way…but her sister shook her head.

"Trust me, I'm going last." Rose said.

Alexis shrugged. "Fine, but yours has to be pretty bad because my boyfriend kissed another woman."

"Whoa!" April said eating a couple more Swedish fish as Eva choked on her licorice whip.

"Yeah." Alexis told them. "I slapped him and left."

"I threw water in Peter's face." Eva said.

April nodded. "I poured my martini over Clark's head."

"I stomped on Bruce's foot." Rose said, and shrugged, eating a spoonful of ice cream.

"So what did Bruce do?" Alexis asked.

Rose looked at them dismally. "So he was being all romantic right, and was taking me up to Wayne Tower to see the fireworks, and then Chase comes out of nowhere and almost gets mugged. And Bruce can't just turn into Batman right then and there so he punches the guy in the face, and then Chase throws herself at him and he accepted it! He was all, 'Oh yeah, I work out,' and 'you must be so brave not to scream,' and blah, blah, blah."

Everyone looked at her, April speaking first.

"Rose…you should have gone first." April told her. "So not as bad as mine."

Alexis and Eva nodded, and then as Alexis was about to eat another Ferrero Roca, she almost choked.

"Wait a minute—turn into Batman?" Alexis asked.

"Shit!" Rose said after a pause. "I wasn't supposed to say!"

"That makes so much sense now! All the fighting! Wow." Eva exclaimed, piecing it all together in her head as she ate another licorice whip.

April's face snapped up. "Oh my God! _That's_ why Clark and Willoughby all thought I would get it! Because Clark being Superman, he's Batman's best—fuck! That's not how I was trying to word that sentence."

"Ooooh. Superman." Rose said, nodding approvingly.

****

Eva looked up slowly, and then she opened her mouth as Rose and April began to talk.

"This can't all be one big coincidence." Eva told them.

Everyone looked at her.

"What are you talking about, Eva?" April asked calmly, eating more Swedish fish.

"Well, Peter's Spiderman." Eva said. "Sure, I prolly shouldn't have said it, but I mean, how weird is that?"

"You know, I was gonna give Spiderman props, but I know the man beneath the mask." April said, and popped another Swedish fish into her mouth.

Alexis shrugged. "My props were taken away because, um, hello? _Spider_."

"I think it's kinda hot." Rose said with a shrug.

"Rose, you think ice cream's hot. Shut-up." Alexis told her.

Rose stuck her tongue out.

"Wow. We all have superhero boyfriends, huh?" April asked.

"Well, I'd contribute to this conversation and say that my boyfriend's Wolverine, but that'd be pointing out the obvious." Alexis told them.

Rose nodded. "It definitely would. God. I feel like everything's like so wasted. We had like so much sex and now I like have to call it off."

"Come on, Rose, you can't mean that." Eva stressed. "I mean from what you've said, he was probably just being polite."

Rose shook her head. "You should have seen the look on his face, Eva."

"Well as for me, thinking about it, Clark may not have deserved that. I _was_ flirting with Lex." April ran over in her mind out loud.

Alexis shrugged. "Logan got what he deserved."

Eva sighed. "So did Peter, unfortunately."

"God, it was such great sex!" Rose said sadly, Willoughby coming out with the tray of hot chocolate.

April nodded. "I bet it was, and now you wish you'd waited to give him your virginity until after you had married him, huh?"

"Oh absolutely not! Because then he'd be about to commit adultery. I'm so not into that. I'm more into him dressing up in his Batsuit." Rose said, taking the hot chocolate as everyone else did as well and Willoughby excused himself from the room.

"I'm so much more into getting Superman _out_ of his suit. Why be kinky when you can be romantic?" April asked.

Rose shrugged. "I dunno. I like having extra fun with Bruce. You know, I've been meaning to ask you, April: how do you have sex with the man of steel? I mean wouldn't that hurt like a mother?"

April's eyes widened as Eva listened intently to the conversation. Anything she could learn and not repeat mistakes to in her future, would be preferable.

"Wow, I never thought of that. Ouch." April said, and grimaced, drinking her hot chocolate.

"Wait a minute…you mean you haven't had sex with Clark yet?" Rose asked.

"No." April said. "We haven't come to that moment yet, you know?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"Guys…can we _not_ talk about all this stuff in front of Eva, please?" Alexis asked.

Rose laughed. "As if you don't want to talk about you and Logan and your sex lives."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Please."

"You guys can keep going, really. Don't stop on my account." Eva told them.

****

April laughed a little. "Whatever. I don't care if she hears. She's 19; she's heard a lot of this in Health."

Eva smiled. "Thanks for letting me stay in the room."

Rose was about to say something when the phone rang, and Willoughby picked it up. The four of them craned their necks a little, and then Willoughby popped his head in.

"Eva, it's Peter." Willoughby told her.

Eva sighed. "Tell him I'm sleeping."

Willoughby nodded, and they heard him tell Peter the alibi before hanging up on him, the doorbell ringing.

"I'll get it!" Willoughby called.

"God, I can only imagine who it is." Alexis said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Is it possibly the boyfriend with super speed?" Rose asked, and to her enjoyment, Clark's voice could then be heard.

"April?" He asked, and then he appeared in the room. "April, I am _so_ sorry! I should _not_ have flirted with Lois! I guess I was really jealous of you flirting with Lex. I shouldn't have let it go that far."

April smiled a little. "It's okay, Clark. I've been thinking about it, and I really shouldn't have flirted with him. After lots of junk food, and some _Titanic_, I think I'm ready to put this behind us."

Clark smiled and kissed her, to which Rose of all people scoffed.

"Gross. Get a room." Rose said.

Everyone looked at her, completely wide-eyed.

"Oh my God." Eva gasped out. "Rose, that was so not like you."

"She really needs an apology." Bruce announced, stepping into the room.

Rose hurriedly set the container of ice cream down and then stood up, Bruce laughing a little, and then wiping some fallen ice cream off of her shirt.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked, pushing his hand away slowly.

Bruce sighed. "Well, after elevating the foot you crushed, I started thinking. I mean I'm madly in love with you, even though you are the craziest woman I have ever met. So, I realized as Alfred got me more ice, and a beer, that I didn't want to be without you."

"Okay, okay—cut to the chase." Rose said, wishing he wasn't spilling his soul to everyone when she was still a little mad.

"Marry me. For real this time. For us." Bruce told her.

Rose was about to say something as everyone else was looking at them with wild anticipation. She swallowed, and then she shook her head.

"No, Bruce. I want my proposal to be romantic and planned—not some spontaneous decision you made over a beer and an iced foot." Rose explained calmly.

Bruce nodded. "Come back to the Mansion please?"

Rose nodded at him and he went to grab his coat.

"Man, Rose. You're gonna crush his ego so much that he won't ask you again." Alexis told her.

Rose shrugged. "If he really loves me, he'll plan it and try again."


	26. Engagements and Breakups

Rose said goodbye to everyone and took Bruce's hand as he offered it.

"I hope you're not too put out with my rejection." Rose told him.

Bruce smiled and waved it off. "No, it's okay. I completely understand why you would want it planned. I mean you want to know I'd be in it for the long haul, right?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah. That's exactly it. I mean I don't want you to think that I don't think that you may be in my future, Bruce—I just—commitment is a big thing, and I want us to go into this 100%."

"I understand." He told her.

She smiled at him and he smiled back, both of them walking all the way to the mansion, and then walking inside. Bruce helped her out of her jacket, and then wiped a snowflake off of her nose. He really needed to do this. He took her by the hand and led her to the Batcave, which made her raise an eyebrow.

"Why are we going to the Batcave?" Rose asked. "You're actually _taking_ me into the Batcave?"

Bruce chuckled. "You'll see."

As he opened the door for her, her jaw dropped, and she looked at the decked out Batcave. There were candles, and a dinner for two, as well as mood music, and Alfred standing there in a nice suit, holding a tray with iced champagne.

"Oh my God." Rose breathed. "I would have dressed up had I known this would be here waiting for me."

Bruce smiled. "Do you know when I first fell in love with you?"

Rose looked at him and blushed. "No, when?"

"Remember the beginning of last year?" Bruce asked, and Rose nodded. "Well, I've always been attracted to you, but the way you handled that press conference speech I needed to do—it was beautiful. _You_ were beautiful. You've always been on top of things. Organized. At least when you first were an intern. Now you're much more insane, but that's all right. What I think I'm trying to say is, we're a perfect match."

Rose smiled, tears coming. "Yeah? Funny since I've been in love with you since I first saw your picture in 'Heir' Magazine, when I was 17. I read this article about how you had disappeared for a bit, and then you came back to run the company and I was completely astonished and amazed. Besides us being pretty childish though, I do agree."

Alfred smiled. "You know, you two are complete opposites."

Bruce chuckled. "And opposites attract."

"It's like Yin and Yang." Rose told him. "That's how we work."

Bruce nodded. "You think you can see us working together long-term?"

"I think I can, yeah." Rose said, sitting down at the table.

Bruce nodded and pulled a jewelry box out of his pocket and then knelt down beside her. He opened it and she smiled a little, both of them knowing that this was a new beginning for them—if they could grow up enough to make it work.

"Will you marry me, Rose Meckenzie?" Bruce asked.

Rose nodded, the tears coming more. "Yes, Bruce Wayne."

Bruce grinned, and slid the diamond ring onto her finger.

****

Alexis sighed and stuck another spoonful of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream into her mouth. Eva slumped down on the floor, and picked up two movies. April had already gone on back with Clark.

"So…_Lake House_ or _Down With Love_?" Eva asked.

Alexis shrugged. "_Down With Love_."

"I was thinking that too. We already cried during _Titanic_." Eva nodded, and popped the DVD in.

"You talking to Peter yet?" Willoughby asked, sticking his head in.

"Absolutely not." Eva replied, not looking up.

"And if Logan calls, I'm still screening his calls too." Alexis put in, eating more ice cream.

Eva sighed and looked around the coffee table. "Where the heck did the marshmallows go?"

Alexis laughed and then they both looked for a couple moments, finding them underneath the half eaten giant back of Swedish Fish, and on top of the Hershey Kisses.

"Here you go." Alexis said.

Eva smiled and then popped some marshmallows in her mouth and they watched the movie for a while. Willoughby coming in occasionally to give them hot chocolate refills. He asked if they wanted to go see the fireworks with him, but they didn't want to be reminded of what day it was.

"Hi, Logan." Willoughby said from the kitchen, and Alexis rolled her eyes. "You know what? She's screening your calls. Yep. Don't call again. I'm done getting up. Goodbye. Have a nice night, Logan. No. No. I'm serious. Stop calling. Don't make me hang up on you, Logan. Logan. LOGAN!! Good_bye_."

Willoughby slammed the phone down and then took a deep breath, going to go and make the girls something substantial to eat at the stove. While he was cooking, the phone rang again, and Willoughby fumed a little. He picked up the receiver angrily and rubbed his temples.

"Stop calling her Logan!" Willoughby said forcefully. "What? Oh. Reed Richards? Neither Rose nor Bruce is actually here at the moment. Is there something I can do for you? A machine, huh? Alex and Rose are really the only two in the house that might be able to help you, and Alex is the only one here. Yeah, sure. I can have her, Bruce and Rose meet you tomorrow. Sorry I yelled at you. Happy New Year's."

Willoughby hung up the phone and wrote the message down, going back to the food he was preparing, Eva and Alexis poking their heads into the kitchen.

"Something smells good." Eva said with a smile.

Alexis nodded. "Yeah, something sounds good."

Willoughby smiled. "Reed Richards has a new machine to test for Wayne Enterprises. You think Rose and Bruce will be up to it?"

"I dunno…" Eva mused. "They had their 'game' faces on."

Alexis laughed. "God, so true."

Eva shrugged. "I bet if someone called them though, they'd set an alarm or only go at it once."

****

Eva sighed as she laid in her bed later that evening. She had kind of hoped that Peter would have shown up by now. Kind of hoped that he'd admit he was stupid and wrong, and ask for forgiveness. So far…no luck.

"Spiderman, you son of a—" Eva began, but stopped when Willoughby knocked on her door.

"Eva? You okay?" Willoughby asked.

Willoughby opened the door and Eva shrugged.

"I dunno, Willoughby. I just—what if Peter and I are over? What if we're done? What if we're not meant to be?"

"Whoa, honey, whoa. Slow down." Willoughby told her, coming over and sitting on her bed. "Now when Alex talks like that and throws in the cuss words, I agree with her—you though? Peter is so not Logan."

Eva laughed a little. "You don't like Logan? He's sweet to me."

"_Everyone's _sweet to you. You're Eva." Willoughby said, and smiled when she did. "Logan and Bruce? Eh."

"You don't like Bruce either? He and Rose are so going to get married someday, and you know it!" Eva protested.

Willoughby nodded. "Well…she's Rose. To be honest, I think they deserve each other."

"You don't like Rose?!? How can you, Willoughby!?!" Eva said out loud.

Willoughby laughed. "What I meant is that Rose is in love. I'm sure Logan and Bruce have other facets to their personalities I know nothing about. If Rose is willing to create a life with him, he can't be _all_ bad. I'm just saying that his rep leaves much to be desired. And Logan? He's an ass."

Eva gasped—the old man was not allowed to curse! It was just wrong! He was Willoughby! And did he just say 'rep'?

"Willoughby…you are starting to freak me out." Eva said, but she smiled a little. "I feel kind of cheered up though."

Willoughby smiled. "Good. Now don't tell Rose that I don't like her—I love that girl. She is the first of you I was introduced to."

"We love you like you were our Dad, just like you love us like children, Willoughby." Eva said, touching the old man's hand.

Willoughby smiled an old smile. "Thank you, Eva. It's sweet of you. Now if you'd care to look out your window, I can go to sleep."

Eva raised an eyebrow, but went to the window and was shocked, yet relieved—it had taken Peter long enough to get there!

"Who says I'm talking to you?" Eva asked. "You should have been here _hours_ ago!"

Willoughby laughed and left the room to go to bed, Peter sighing loudly.

"I know, I know. I just—I didn't know what to say. I was being a jerk, and I had no idea what I would tell you to get you to forgive me, when I don't deserve forgiveness." Peter told her.

Eva smiled. "That was the perfect thing to say, Peter Parker. Now…are you going to climb on up or what?"

Peter beamed, and climbed up, coming into her room and kissing her swiftly. Eva was caught off guard, but returned it.

"Will you marry me?" Peter asked her as their lips parted.

****

There was something about Metropolis that made April feel at ease. She didn't want to move too fast with Clark, but she kind of loved living here. Clark came up behind her and ran his hands along her arms, both of them looking at the city from his window.

"You cold?" Clark asked.

April shook her head. "No. I'm just thinking."

Clark nodded and kissed the top of her head. What April didn't know was that Clark wanted her to move in with him, but neither of them was quite sure the other was ready. It seemed like their relationship was completely filled with the 'what ifs' and the 'if onlys'. Neither of them was sure which one needed to step up first.

"Metropolis is beautiful." April said happily. "And on the other note—I'm still really sorry I flirted with Lex. He just smelled so good."

Clark laughed. "Smelled so good, eh? Maybe I should buy his cologne."

April rolled her eyes. "You smell good too."

She turned around in his arms and kissed him softly, Clark returning it happily. They were finding that they really did love each other, and with his secret out in the open, they knew they could trust each other. The only thing April hadn't told him yet was that now her family knew. What Clark didn't know wouldn't hurt him though.

"You're thinking hard." Clark said, pulling away a little.

April shook her head quickly. "No I'm not."

Clark laughed. "You are too."

"I'm tired." April said with a shrug.

Clark nodded. "Me too. Would you like to stay in here, or sleep in the guest room?"

"Whichever one is better for you." April said, blushing a little at the prospect of sleeping in Clark's bed.

Clark smiled. "You can stay in here."

April nodded and changed into her pajamas, coming out of the bathroom and climbing into bed as Clark turned off the lights. He wrapped his strong arms around her, and held her close. April smiled brightly, and rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Here he was, Clark Kent, and he was all hers.

"I kind of maybe sort of love you, Clark." April said softly.

Clark chuckled a little, and his chest heaved under her head, making her heart jump a little merrily.

"I kind of maybe sort of love you too, April." Clark whispered.

April looked up at him, their lips meeting, and she smiled. Coming out with her feelings wasn't as hard as she thought it would be, and still, even though she felt accomplished, she also felt like she should have said it better. That was something that happened to April all the time—she always felt like what she said or did, could be said or done better than she'd said or done it. Before she could think anymore though, her phone rang. She picked it up, and gasped a little as the excited voice of Rose spoke.

"What?" Clark asked.

"Rose is getting married." April told him.


	27. Kiara

Rose ran her fingers through Bruce's hair the next morning and he stirred a little. She'd woken up to Alfred coming in and then heading back out, and Rose had laughed a little. She now ran her nose along Bruce's and kissed him softly.

"Sweetheart, you have to wake up. When I called Alex she told me that we had a meeting with Reed today." Rose whispered, and then sighed—this was tougher than she thought.

Posing for a moment to figure out what to do next, Rose admired the diamond on her finger—not too big, but most importantly—not too small. Knowing everyone else's boyfriends, she was hoping no one would have a larger diamond than her, and at the same time, she liked that hers wasn't too big like most billionaire's wives'. There were diamonds all around it, diamonds in layers around the rock, and it wasn't completely ugly. She could have had a lot worse.

"I'm going to climb on top of you." Rose told Bruce, whose head turned away from her. "Bruce…I'm serious."

Bruce didn't move though, so Rose climbed on top of him, holding the covers up around her as she sat on him, and smacked him in the chest.

"OW!" Bruce exclaimed, resting his hand on the now pinkish spot on his chest. "That hurt!"

Rose shrugged. "I told you to get up, Lover."

Bruce sent her a look and turned them over roughly.

"Yes, well, now my chest is pinkish." Bruce told her.

"Only in one spot. Don't be such a baby about it, Bruce." She replied, kissing the spot and then looking at him. "See? All better. Can we go now?"

Bruce sighed. "What am I? Bad at sex? Every time we have this time that I find wonderful, you want to go do something."

"Are you sore 'cause I'd rather go out and do something than stay in bed and do someone?" Rose asked, laughing a little.

"Well…yes." Bruce told her truthfully. "Men have feelings too, you know."

"What?" Rose asked. "I thought you just had urges."

Bruce gave her a look. "Seriously, Rose. I have pride."

Rose kissed him tenderly. "Honey, you're not bad at sex. You're fantastic at it—a God even. I just like to do other things too. I can remedy it. We can spend a whole day in bed in the future. Right now though? We gotta go meet up with Alex, and then go see Reed's machine. Come on, Honey."

"What is this thing with Reed?" Bruce asked.

Rose shrugged. "Alex has some work stuff to do, and I wanna see the machine. On the other hand, maybe I should be making things up to you."

"Like what? My wounded pride?" Bruce asked with a laugh.

Rose shook her head. "No, uh. Bruce. You like honesty, right?"

Bruce nodded. "Of course I do."

"I, uh—I kind of might have let your whole identity slip." Rose said.

"What?" Bruse asked slowly.

Rose nodded, and then got up quickly to get dressed. While she was brushing her hair, Bruce had finally gotten dressed himself and knew what to ask.

"You were careless enough to tell people I was Batman?" Bruce asked.

Rose sighed. "Just Alex, Eva and April."

****

Alexis had been astounded to hear her older sister was getting married—astounded and excited. She had bustled around the house finding things for an interview for Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four, and then Rose came bursting in the door.

"Look at my ring! Look at my ring!" Rose cried.

Alexis looked at it. "You could have done a lot worse."

"I said the exact same thing!" Rose said happily, looking at the ring on her finger. "I'm quite enjoying myself. It's actually kind of pretty if you look at it long enough. You think I could pawn it?"

Alexis laughed. "You already want to pawn it?"

"Then I could make him buy me a new one—one of my choice." Rose explained.

"That's very true. I like your thinking." Alexis said. "Cunning—thank you for taking a page out of my book for once."

Rose shrugged. "Let's go see the sexy nerd and his big machine. Did that come out wrong like I think it did?"

Alexis nodded. "Yes…yes it most certainly did."

"Oh well—I bet he has a big machine." Rose said.

Alexis just shook her head, not wanting to give her sister anymore to go on, and they left the house, hopping into Alexis's car, and heading over to see Reed. Once they got there, Rose gave Alexis a very approving nod, and Alexis smacked her.

"What? He's sexy." Rose said.

"Well hello." The man told them. "Johnny Storm at your service."

He took Rose's hand and kissed it, and Rose winked.

"Rose Meckenzie." Rose told him.

Johnny eyed the ring. "So I think you should tell me how to get you to forget the man that has your affections. Do you like fire?"

"Hmm? Oh, the ring? I love fire." Rose said absent-mindedly.

"I can become a fire elemental." Johnny told her.

Rose wiggled her eyebrows. "But how does that affect your clothes?"

"What clothes?" He asked.

Rose beamed. "I have all the time in the world for you to show me fire."

Johnny nodded, and Alexis shook her head after slapping herself in the forehead, and as Rose and Johnny started to slip out of the room, Reed walked in and smiled.

"Alexis! It's good to see you. Shall we begin?" Reed asked.

Alexis nodded. "We shall. Can we go fast? I'm worried that if left too long with Johnny, Rose might jeopardize her engagement. Where is Bruce anyways?"

****

Eva sighed loudly as she shot some random pictures at the new science lab that had opened in New York. For the first time in a while, Eva was actually sad. After Peter's blurt out, and the fact that she was freaking out about them always moving so fast, the perfect couple had split. Eva hadn't even told anyone yet—she just took the first shuttle to New York, and packed up her things and was working on her first story before she tried to find a new place to live.

"I could always live with Clark." She muttered to herself.

Eva took a few more pictures that her editor, Max Dashwood, had sent her to take, and then let the camera that Peter bought her, hang around her neck. She sighed again and set her hand on a nearby desk, looking at some caged spiders. It didn't help that this entire day was reminding her of Peter—she kept trying to think of all the good things: like Rose and Bruce being engaged.

"What else in here is interesting?" Eva asked herself, looking around.

Before she could walk over to a large radiator, she felt a painful prick on her hand, and jumped.

"Ouch!" She cried.

A man walking by the room came in when she exclaimed in pain, and rushed over.

"Are you all right?" He asked her.

She nodded as she rubbed her hand, but her eyes widened when she looked down—a spider. Everything about today was like one big bad omen. Her relationship with Peter took a negative turn—she'd been bit by the spider: both metaphorically and literally.

"I just got bit by a spider is all. I'm fine." She replied, smiling her Eva smile.

The man looked over at the spider in question, and swallowed. He killed it with a rolled up newspaper that was in his hand, and then turned to her when she let out a cry of protest.

"You should probably have that checked out. The spiders in here are part of experiments." He explained.

Eva nodded. "Thanks."

She just left because nothing was going her way. She had just been bit by a spider like Peter had—a spider that had been through experiments. What if she got freaky powers too? What if she was about to become a super hero? It wasn't fair. She didn't need anything else making her think about Peter Parker. Peter Parker, who thought he could just ask her to marry him to make up for being a jerk. Eva answered her cell phone when it went off and sighed dramatically.

"Hi, Rose. Now isn't a good time." Eva said, looking at the bite mark.

"Yes, well, Peter called about your bags. You need a place to stay?" Rose asked her. "Because the house is always open."

Eva smiled a little. "Thanks for the offer, Rose, but I need someplace close to my new, New York Times job."

"Right. Well…that's why I called Clark too. He has a spare room if you need it until you can find a new apartment." Rose said. "I can pull some strings in a really nice place if you want me too."

Eva laughed. "You forget, Rose—I'm rich too. I can take care of it. Getting Clark to go get my things from Peter's so I won't have to though, that sounds appealing."

"I'll let him know then. Keep me informed, okay?" Rose asked.

"I promise." Eva replied, and the two hung up, knowing that Eva never broke a promise to her favorite cousin, and Rose never let her favorite cousin down.

****

Being back in Gotham was both a blessing and curse for April. She wanted to meet the intern that would be following her and Arthur around, but she also wanted to be in Metropolis—be near Clark and write the stories she wanted to write.

"I've heard she's something else." Arthur told April when she got into work.

April sighed. "Well maybe that means she's good at what she does."

"Oh my God, are you April? I'm Kiara. I'm _so_ excited to be your intern! I've followed everything you've ever done! You're so young and talented! We're going to be best friends, I know it!" Kiara told her, her blonde hair practically bouncing as she spoke fast and excited.

April's eyes were wide at this point. "Wow…you're like Rose on steroids."

Kiara gasped excitedly. "Rose?!? Like Rose Meckenzie?!? She's dating Bruce Wayne! He's so hot! He's like really rich, and totally smooth. And like all his hot cars? And Rose? She's my idol. She's the youngest Wayne Tower's intern to ever get to be Co-Owner without having to sleep her way to the top! I loved watching her go from protective, intelligent, to ditsy and shallow—I mean she's so awesome! Pretending to be retarded and showing women everywhere that they can do everything and anything!"

"Wow—you're just speedy, huh?" April asked, faking a smile. "Let's just uh—Arthur, can you show her the cameras, please?"

Kiara looked at Arthur and beamed. Normally, April was completely oblivious, but at this point, April had seen Bruce and Rose enough to know that Kiara was instantly attracted to Arthur. Arthur, however, was trying very hard to not flirt with her, and show her the camera all scientific-like. Like Rose, though, Kiara seemed to really love it when men were smart and explaining how things worked. It was kind of scary to see a girl so much like the Rose that everyone saw now, and it kind of made April miss the way Rose used to be—before Bruce.

"April?" Came Clark's voice.

April turned around quickly and smiled. "Hey, Boyfriend."

Clark smiled, and then put his hands in his pockets. April sighed—it was only a matter of time before something went terribly wrong. She really shouldn't have been surprised about it, but nonetheless she wanted to go through one day without a whole bunch of turmoil.

"Has Eva talked to you yet?" Clark asked her.

April raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Clark sighed. "She and Peter broke up, and she wanted to move in with me because I'm in New York near her new job."

"I'm going to kill him." April said. "He breaks up with my sister, he kicks her out—"

Clark shook his head. "Actually, she broke up with him and then moved out…without having another place to go to."

April sighed. "How is it that my boyfriend knows more about my own sister's life than I do?"

"Rose knows too if that makes you feel any better." Clark said.

April made a face. "It really doesn't."


	28. The Arrival of Stark

Rose stretched the next morning before she opened her eyes and smiled. Bruce was smiling at her, propped up on his hand. He reached out and stroked her hair, kissing her forehead, and then her lips.

"Good morning, Bruce." Rose whispered.

Bruce grinned. "Happy Birthday, Rose."

Rose smiled. "25, and still hella hot."

Bruce chuckled. "Well aren't you the modest one?"

"Oh yeah." Rose answered, shrugging and giggling. "I have tons of self confidence, and Alex has this huge party planned for me."

Bruce smiled. "That she does. So why didn't you take the day off?"

Rose shrugged. "Cause I'm sleeping with my boss, and I know he'll let me off easy while I'm at work today, so why not get paid to laze around today?"

"You know, no one gives you enough smart points." Bruce said, leaning in.

Rose kissed him softly. "Don't I know it?"

Rose kissed him one more time and then got up, opening up a drawer while in her pajamas. Bruce got up too, and then he got dressed and they headed into the office after Alfred made them breakfast. After working a little, Rose went back to the house and heard laughing.

"Wow, Tony, I've really missed your company." Willoughby told him.

Rose gasped, and hurried into the living room. "Tony?!?"

Standing before her was Tony Stark of Stark Industries. Rose and Tony had known each other for a very, very long time—they'd even dated for long enough to get engaged, but Rose had left him at the altar. She hadn't been sure she wanted to settle down at that point. Once upon a time, Rose had been smart, driven, mature—then Bruce came into the picture and Rose wanted to be with him so she started acting like the super models he ran around with. Tony was her High School Sweetheart, and for some reason, she felt like she had to be herself around him—her true self.

"You know, last time I saw you, you were—" Rose began.

"—dressed in a tux and left at the altar by the woman I was in love with." Tony finished for her.

Rose blushed. "Right…that _was_ when we last saw each other, huh?"

Tony smiled. "And now you're dating another billionaire."

"Oh you know me…I only go for people with money." Rose joked.

Tony laughed. "Rose, I think we all know you better than that—at least who you used to be better than that."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, I got really shallow."

Tony smiled. "Yes you did, but who can blame you? Men of money don't normally go for women of smarts."

Rose looked at the floor. "You did. You were an absolutely fabulous man, and I left you staring at your shoes while I ran down the aisle."

Tony shrugged. "You were scared, Rose. I mean what real relationships had we had before each other?"

"None." Rose answered. "But after each other? Well you've had _way_ more than me, but either way—we've grown."

"And now you're getting married. Wow. Do I get to meet him? And Happy Birthday, Rosie." Tony said.

Rose smiled at him lovingly. "Thanks Tony-Boo-Boo. You can meet him at the party tonight."

Alexis sampled some of the homemade frosting and grinned.

"Oh my God, Willoughby—this is fantastic." Alexis told him. "I mean really."

"Alfred made it." Willoughby announced.

Alfred looked up and smiled. "Rose ate a whole container of some once."

"Well it doesn't taste gross like store-bought frosting." Alexis said merrily. "She's going to love this cake."

Alfred smiled. "Well Willoughby made the cake. Bruce thought it would be better if both of us helped out."

"Well duh—I told him how much she loves both of you." Alexis told them. "I am the brains of this party operation."

The boys laughed, and then Alexis walked out into the living room and stood there, gaping.

"Well, well, well—the Meckenzies definitely got hot." Tony said.

Alexis went over and hugged him in her confusion.

"Tony Stark? Wow. Never thought I'd see you again. Wait…what exactly are you doing here?" Alexis asked.

Tony laughed. "Like I'd miss Rosie's birthday!"

"To be honest, I haven't heard from you since I took off, but I'm glad you're here. Wait…if Alex didn't invite you then…who did?" Rose asked, Willoughby coming into the room. "Willoughby! Did you invite my ex fiancé even though you knew that my present fiancé would be coming, and he's the jealous type?"

Willoughby laughed. "Please, Rose, as much as we all love Tony, I'm smarter than that."

"Is anybody home?" April asked, coming in the door.

"April." Rose said. "April did it."

"Figures." Alexis replied.

April came into the room and smiled. "Tony!"

"Wow you guys look so much better than you did in High School." Tony said.

"You're more attractive too, Tony-Boo-Boo." Rose told him, patting his arm. "Eva doesn't have braces anymore and April's over her acne."

April rolled her eyes. "Anyway…where's Pepper?"

"She's going to be here in like…10 minutes." Rose said beaming after checking her watch.

"Once upon a time you two were inseparable." Alexis recollected.

Rose nodded. "Yeah…before Bruce…when's my party again?"

Alexis noticed the cover-up, because Rose didn't want Tony to know that she'd taken a turn on the ditsy side to snag Bruce, and she'd succeeded. Tony was one of the only men that ever truly loved her when she was intelligent. Everyone thought she was going to marry him, and only Alexis and Willoughby knew that Rose had lied about bring a virgin—Tony Stark had been her first.

"We're doing this all at the place where Bruce holds his Galas right?" Tony asked, and the girls nodded. "I've always wanted to meet Bruce Wayne."

Eva sighed as she set her bags down at Clark's. She was wishing she knew what to tell April, but she had no idea. She had told Clark not to tell her, but when he'd taken off rather quickly and was nowhere to be found, Eva knew she'd been squealed on. She sighed a bit as she unpacked her bags in the guest room, and looked anxiously at her phone. Why hadn't April called to yell at her? Why hadn't Rose called to see if she'd gotten there all right? Why hadn't Clark called to tell her he was off and he'd be back later?

Something was wrong, but all of those thoughts were pushed out of her head when her bite started to itch. She scratched it a little bit, and then looked at it—it was definitely infected. She wasn't feeling too good, so she pushed her clothes off of her bed, and laid on it, curling up and falling asleep. When she woke up, she remembered that she was supposed to head out to go and see Rose for her birthday. Amazingly enough, she looked at the spot where she had been bitten, and all was healed.

"Great…I _am_ going to turn into a freak." Eva said dismally. "This just makes my life sooooooo awesome."

Eva heaved a heavy sigh and then she walked out into the main room and looked at Clark as Clark wrapped Rose's birthday present. Eva didn't have time to pussy-foot around, so she stood in front of him and stared him down until he looked directly at her.

"Yes, Eva?" Clark asked her.

"Look, I know you're Superman, so when you're done wrapping that, I need you to fly us over to the mansion. Please, and thank you." Eva told him in one breath.

Clark stared at her, stunned. "You know?"

Eva nodded as she shrugged. "We all know about all of you."

"You guys thought you had the right to go around sharing _our_ secrets?" Clark asked her, dumbfounded.

Eva sighed. "Clark? I adore you, I do…but you need to wrap faster and then fly us over to the mansion."

Clark raised an eyebrow and then pushed his glasses back up onto his nose. "You're suddenly a little pushy, Eva."

"Look, I just need to be there for Rose!" Eva said in exasperation and headed back to her room to get dressed.

When she was done, Clark flew them over and the first person Eva saw while she was adjusting to the head rush was Tony. Eva squealed a little in excitement, and then hugged Tony fiercely. She wasn't going to lie—Tony had always been her favorite of Rose's love interests. He was the only one who really saw her for who she truly was.

"What in the world are you doing here, Tony?" Eva asked, kissing his cheek. "You look so mature! Wait a minute…how many dates did you bring to your ex fiancé's birthday party?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Give me some credit, Eva."

Eva laughed. "I did…so what's the answer to the question?"

"Eva!" Pepper exclaimed.

Eve squealed again and then hugged Pepper and then Rose who was excited as well right next to her.

"Pepper! Oh my god, you look fantastic!" Eva said.

"You two! I have to admit I was kind of surprised Tony and I got invited…I mean the last time we were all together was—" Pepper began.

"—was the day I left Tony at the alter. God…people really need to stop throwing that in my face." Rose said dismally. "Bruce!"

April was beyond angry at everything and everyone at that particular moment. She was outside by herself while Rose made all the introductions with Bruce, and she smiled when Clark came outside to see her. It was about time that he showed up to talk to her. With everything that was going down, she really needed her boyfriend.

"There's my man." April said happily, kissing him and then frowning when he didn't return it. "What's wrong?"

"Did you seriously tell Eva my secret?" Clark asked her, and then sighed when she looked confused. "You know…my _super_ secret?"

April swallowed. "Yes…but in my defense, once Rose accidentally let it slip about Bruce, it was obvious! Then I thought out loud and didn't mean to, and it all just came out! It's not like I walked up to her going, 'Hey Eva, Clark's really Superman'!"

Clark took a deep breath. "I entrusted you with that secret, April."

"Clark…it's not like I'm going to go around blabbing it to anyone." April told him.

"April—I'm sorry. This may be a bad time, but I need to know…did you invite Tony?" Rose asked.

"Yes." April said with a sigh. "Yes I did. You know what? This has been a really shitty couple days for me! Eva breaks up with her boyfriend and moves in with _my_ boyfriend and _no one_ tells me! She's _my_ little sister, and she told _you_!"

Rose ran her fingers through her hair. "In my defense, Peter called the house and told me what was up. I was worried about her, called Clark to give him a heads up, and then called Eva to make sure she was okay. I wanted her safe and sound because your little sister or not, she's my family too."

"You seriously invited Tony to make Rose's birthday bad?" Clark asked.

April swallowed. "In a fit of anger and confusion…I invited Logan too."

"WHAT?!" Rose asked in a harsh whisper. "Are you fucking insane?!"

"Apparently." April said. "I'm so sorry—it was all one big misunderstanding and I was really upset and I do really retarded things when I'm upset."

"I forgive you…but I need to go get Willoughby to hide the knives before Logan shows." Rose said, and hurried into the house.

April nodded and then turned to Clark and looked him over. Clark wasn't looking too happy—in fact he looked kind of sad. April reached out to stroke his cheek, but he pulled away and shook his head. In one swift, nervous movement, he pushed his glasses up on his nose and swallowed.

"April?" Clark asked her.

April didn't like the tone in his voice. "What is it, Clark? I'm really sorry that I went off on you about Eva—I'm just scared that I'm losing her. Nobody tells me anything around here anymore and I'm losing my touch at the station, and Donovan's giving me a hard time and Kiara's fucking insane and—"

"—we need to break up." Clark told her, cutting her off.

April swallowed. "What?"

Clark nodded and looked her in the eye. "I'm done."


	29. VERY IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE

**AUTHOR'S NOTE****:**

_**Hey guys.**_

_**I have some bad news…**_

_**So last night my laptop died…and I haven't backed it up for two months.**_

_**What does that mean?**_

_**That means I have lost a whole lot.**_

_**That means I have no new updates and probably won't for a while.**_

_**I'm on my mother's computer right now and I don't know when I'm gonna get my laptop fixed or when I'm gonna get my documents back.**_

_**They think that since it's a driver/hardware problem they can fix it and recover my stuff.**_

_**We'll see.**_

_**Mom and I have fixing it on the highest priority—we're trying to get it done by Tuesday, but I don't know.**_

_**For those of you that don't know, I am going to Pennsylvania bright and early on the 22**__**nd**__**, and won't be back until the 28**__**th**__**.**_

_**However we also just got a new place and will be moving in there when I get back and I won't have Internet access until a week after that…or longer depending on how severe this laptop problem is.**_

_***makes a not happy face***_

_**I just wanted to let you guys know that it could be a while before I get anything updated at all and I'm kind of really messed up over it.**_

_**I seriously HATE losing documents.**_

_**I apologize that you guys have to wait forever again.**_

_**I love you all for your support of me.**_

**Kyla aka Pyro**


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